


The Roommate

by LostInTheWiind



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Angst and Fluff and Smut, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Lovers, Eventual Romance, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Romance, Slow Burn, Star Trek - Freeform, star trek movies - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-12
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:46:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 51,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27518593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LostInTheWiind/pseuds/LostInTheWiind
Summary: Francine "Frankie" Warren was expecting to go into her second year at Starfleet Academy with the same roommate and the same focus on her studies that she had from the previous year. Unfortunately for her, things didn't exactly work out as planned, and it all started with a housing mix-up and two new roommates.
Relationships: Leonard "Bones" McCoy/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 38
Kudos: 63





	1. Chapter 1

With luggage in hand and a forced hopeful outlook on the situation at hand, Francine "Frankie" Warren started toward the administration building on Starfleet Academy campus. In the past 24 hours, her second year at the academy was already shaping up to be a lot more stressful than her first, and she wasn't even taking into account the increased workload and more advanced concepts.

During Frankie's first year at the academy, she had been assigned to room with a sweet girl named Jillian who was planning on majoring in warp theory. Jillian was smart, kind, and best of all, a considerate and easy-to-live-with roommate. Thus, when the year came to an end and the faculty sent out surveys asking if the students wished to room with their current roommates in the following year, Frankie hadn't even hesitated to answer yes. She and Jillian had become rather good friends over the course of their first year, and if Frankie could reduce her second-year stress even a little by not having to get used to living with someone else, she would gladly take that opportunity.

Things, however, did not exactly turn out as peachy as Frankie had hoped.

A week before the start of September—and with it, the start of yet another academic year—Frankie had received an email from the academy stating that Jillian had dropped out due to unforeseen circumstances (of which they couldn't spare details) and she was left in the dark when it came to a living situation considering she wasn't yet in her third year, meaning she didn't qualify for a single-person room yet (no matter how good her grades were). Frankie checked her email anxiously over the final week, waiting to see if the housing committee had found her a new room yet—or God forbid, they simply didn't have room for her at all.

Then, at the last minute, Frankie received word that she had finally been placed and was to report to the administration building to find out where she would be staying. She didn't exactly love the thought of having to get used to a new roommate, but the relief of being able to return for another year overshadowed that worry; a worry she could deal with at a later time.

The administration building was packed with students when Frankie entered, which was unsurprising because it was the first day and first-years were always full of so many questions; at least, Frankie was when she had been in her first year.

Knowing that she was going to be in this for the long haul, Frankie found an empty seat in the lobby and pulled one of her medical textbooks out of her suitcase. If she was going to be here a while, she figured she might as well get a head start on her reading. If the previous year had taught her anything about the medical program at Starfleet Academy, it was that you could never be too prepared.

As the minutes turned to hours, Frankie shifted in her seat, her butt beginning to go numb from the uncomfortable chair. She tried to focus on her anatomy review of alien species from the year before (a topic that her classes would start to go into much deeper detail about this year) to take her mind off of the discomfort, but there was only so much that her textbook could do distract her.

Checking her PADD, Frankie noticed that the time was just before 4 pm, meaning that she had been sitting in the admin lobby for approximately two hours. At this rate, there was no way she was going to be able to make it to the student mixer that evening that would kick off the academic year. She didn't mind much, however, considering she didn't exactly have anyone to go with. During her first year, Frankie had been so busy trying not to fall behind in her classes that she hadn't made many friends except for Jillian and one of Jillian's friends, Nyota Uhura. Uhura was a year ahead of Frankie, but she had known Jillian from when they were kids, and thus Frankie and Uhura had become pretty good acquaintances. Frankie wasn't sure she would see much of Uhura if Jillian wasn't around though.

By 4:30, most of the students had cleared out and the admin staff were working hastily to try and get everyone dealt with so they could close up on time at 5. A few minutes later, a short man with grey hair and tired eyes behind thick-rimmed glasses stepped out of one of the many offices and waved for Frankie to step inside.

Letting out a thankful sigh that she was being dealt with before it got too late, she grabbed her luggage, followed the man into the office, and took a seat across from him at the desk.

Before the man even addressed Frankie, he began typing something on his computer; probably to finish up something from the last student he had dealt with. In the meantime, Frankie looked around the small office, taking note of the framed photo of two young children he had displayed beside his computer. Based on the man's visible age, Frankie guessed they were grandchildren.

"Okay." The man finally took the time to acknowledge Frankie's presence. "What can I do for you today?"

"I'm Frankie Warren," she said. "There were some issues with my housing arrangements last minute when my roommate dropped out of the program. I was told to come here to find out my new room assignment."

The man nodded and turned his attention back to his computer. His fingers danced across the keyboard with incredible speed, which Frankie thought was impressive considering how exhausted he looked based on the bags under his eyes.

"Warren . . . Warren . . . Warren," the man muttered as he scrolled down the student list displayed on his screen. "Ah, here we go, Francine Warren, yes?"

Frankie hated the sound of her birth name—she always thought that Francine sounded much too prim and proper—but nodded nevertheless. "That's me." She confirmed.

"Good, good. Okay, room assignment . . . let's see here." The man continued to babble under his breath as he searched for the information he was looking for. "Oh, okay, looks like you've been assigned to room 402 in Building D."

Frankie did a mental double-take to make sure she had heard the man correctly. "Did you say 402?"

"Yes, that's what it says here. Room 402, Building D. Do you know where that is?"

"Yes," Frankie said. She knew exactly where Building D was; it was situated pretty closed to the academy hospital, which actually worked out great considering second-year was when students started their clinical rotations. The building assignment wasn't what was throwing her off; no, it was the room assignment.

The fourth levels of the cadet housings buildings were almost exclusively reserved for third and fourth years due to the fact that the rooms were bigger, with more amenities and often, private rooms.

Frankie was just about to triple-check that she had heard the assignment correctly but stopped herself at the last minute, deciding that she could use a slight win after the stressful week she had had and didn't want to ruin it by possibly alerting the staff member to a possible error.

"Does it say how many roommates I have?" Frankie asked. "Or who they are?"

The man sighed heavily, most likely frustrated with the fact that she was requesting additional details when he still had about two or three more students to deal with after her before the waiting room became completely empty.

"It doesn't specifically state who your roommates are, probably due to the fact that the system hasn't registered that yet. It can take up to 48 hours for that information to load after placement, and yours was done only last night," the man said. "What I can tell you is that you have two roommates."

"Two?" Frankie questioned. "It must be a big room."

"Yes, it appears you've lucked out, Miss Warren." The man forced a smile in an attempt to get Frankie out of his office as quickly as possible. "Is there anything else I can assist you with today?"

"No, thank you." Frankie shook her head.

"Splendid." The man ripped a piece of paper from the notepad on his desk and quickly scribbled down four numbers. "This is the code to get into the room. You will be sent an official email with the code sometime tomorrow, but until then, use this. Have a wonderful evening."

"You as well." Frankie took the paper from the man before standing up and exiting the office with her bags in tow.

Frankie was unable to stop thinking about how lucky she had gotten while she made her way across campus to Building D. On the way, she passed the bustling student mixer on the quad, which was already packed with students dancing to the loud music. Frankie, however, just wanted to get settled into her room, take a shower, and get a good night's sleep for her first day of classes the next day.

Once inside her building, Frankie rode the elevator up to the fourth floor. With a ding, the elevator stopped a few short seconds later and the doors slid open. As she stepped out into the hall, she noticed that the floor was very quiet; most likely due to the fact that everyone had already settled in and were out on the quad getting drunk.

As she approached the doorway of room 402, Frankie suddenly felt nervous. Would her roommates be inside? Would they be nice? Not only did she have to worry about getting along with one new roommate, but now it was _two_ new roommates.

Unwilling to let herself agonize over things out of her control in the hallway, Frankie punched in the four-digit room combination and let herself inside. Immediately, she was greeted with a dark room.

Tapping the tiny control panel beside the door to turn the lights on, Frankie was awestruck by the sight of the room. The first thing she noticed was the size, and man, was it big. Way bigger than her room had been the year before.

In the middle of the room was a decently-sized dining table with four chairs. To the left of the table was the kitchen, which was outfitted with a full-sized fridge, an oven, and a replicator. To the right was the living room, which held a couch, a single armchair, and a pretty impressive television. Finally—and most importantly—Frankie was relieved to see that the rooms were, indeed, private. On one side of the room, both doorways were left open, one of which was the bathroom and the other being a bare-bones bedroom. On the opposite side, two doors remained shut, meaning that the other two roommates had most likely already set up their personal items inside.

"Hello?" Frankie called into the seemingly empty room. She glanced in the direction of the closed doors, waiting to see or possibly hear the first sign of her roommates, but there was no indication that anyone was there.

Assuming that her roommates had gone down to the mixer with everyone else, Frankie welcomed the moment of privacy and headed for the unclaimed bedroom beside the bathroom and began to unpack her belongings.

While loading her clothes into the closet and setting up her various personal effects, Frankie perked at every little noise from the hallway, expecting her roommates to barge in at any moment. She would be lying if she wasn't worried about being the third wheel, considering the fact that the other inhabitants of the room had chosen bedrooms directly next to one another and had seemingly gone out together. All she could do was try to make a great first impression when the time eventually came and hope that she got along with whatever women she would be living with.

Once her bedroom had been outfitted with her belongings, Frankie stepped out into the common area again and decided to take a closer look around the place. As she made her rounds, she quickly realized that one downside to having private rooms was that there wasn't much left out in the open that she could use to gauge the type of people her roommates were.

The only things that Frankie could find around the room were inconspicuous items such as food in the cabinets and books on the dining table. Even the books didn't say much about their owners, however, because they were just standard textbooks. The one thing Frankie was able to learn was that at least one of her roommates was in the medical field as well, which was evident by the Advanced Interplanetary Diseases textbook.

Flipping open the textbook to a random page, Frankie scanned the material quickly and inhaled sharply. Whoever owned this textbook must have been a year or two ahead and _very_ smart because, while she considered herself rather intelligent, even she was having trouble understanding what the textbook was trying to teach.

Closing the book back up again, Frankie decided that she had done enough attempted-snooping for one evening and that she was starving and in need of a hot shower.

So, after using the replicator to cook up a steaming plate of garlic parmesan pasta—a meal that her mother did flawlessly and that reminded her of home, even if this replicator version didn't hold a candle to her mother's—Frankie gathered her bathroom supplies and set off for a shower.

After shutting and locking the door, just in case one or both roommates came home while she was in the shower, she noticed that the bathroom remained empty. No one had set up their things yet.

Wanting to be as polite as possible, Frankie took up as little space as possible with the reminder that the one bathroom needed to be shared by three people. Once her few items were made at home, she placed her pyjamas on the counter beside the sink, undressed, and turned on the shower.

The warm water felt like heaven after a long day of travelling, sitting in a packed waiting room, and unpacking. After spending much too long scrubbing away the remaining stress, Frankie turned off the water and wrapped herself in a towel.

Staring at herself in the mirror, she combed through her auburn hair with her fingers and checked to see if any blemishes had cropped up among her many freckles.

After drying off and changing into her nightshirt and sleep shorts—which were slightly too short, but from her experience, female roommates rarely ever cared if anyone walked around in underwear or even completely nude—she brushed her teeth, removed her makeup, and got ready to head to bed.

Just as she opened the bathroom door and let the steam from her shower seep into the common area, a familiar-sounding series of four electronic beeps came from the hallway and the front door swung open.

Straightening up, Frankie realized that having just come out of the bathroom wasn't exactly the best way to meet her roommates for the first time, but she didn't really have much of a choice.

The first thing that alerted Frankie to something being off was a man's laugh. Had one of her roommates brought a guy back to the room on the very first night? While Frankie wasn't one to necessarily judge, she did think that was a rather bold move. Now she was unsure if then was the best time to introduce herself or if she should maybe wait until the morning.

Before she could flee to her room, however, two figures stepped into the dimly lit room. Frankie froze in place. They were both men . . . and there wasn't a single woman in sight.

Now Frankie was worried that her room was being broken into on her very first night. While her mind raced with a million different possible scenarios about what the hell was going on, the men continued to converse and laugh with one another, completely unaware of her presence.

The first man was tall with dirty blonde hair and the most brilliant pair of blue eyes that probably ever existed. The second man was even taller than the first with messy brown hair and, as Frankie noticed when he spoke, a rather noticeable southern drawl.

The first thing that crossed Frankie's mind after eyeing up the men was that they were both quite a bit larger than her and that she would be no match should it come to fighting them off.

So, instead of having to resort to her lacking physical skills, Frankie decided to use the people-skills that she liked to think she was well versed in.

Frankie hoped that the two men had simply stumbled into the wrong room by accident and that this was all a simple misunderstanding. But then again, if this was any sort of accident, how had the men possessed the entry code for the room? How had they gotten inside in the first place?

The many possible explanations quickly became tangled in Frankie's tired mind and instead of continuing to try and work anything out for herself, she simply decided to figure out what exactly was going on by talking to the men.

"Ugh . . . hello?" Frankie gave a timid wave.

Both men stopped in their tracks as their smiles that indicated a good time at the mixer immediately faded.

"Well, hello there." The first man with piercing blue eyes greeted, taking immediate notice of Frankie's short shorts. "Are you here for . . .?" He gave a head nod in the direction of Frankie's room. "Man, what a dog. Getting some on the first night?"

Frankie furrowed her brows, confused. "Am I here for who?" She questioned.

"Oh, fuck, I don't remember the guy's name." The man turned to his friend. "Who was the guy who was supposed to be moving in with us?"

The other man thought for a moment, his eyes never leaving Frankie. "Umm . . . it started with an F . . . Frank-something?"

"Yes!" The first man snapped his finger with recollection. "Are you here for Frank-something?"

Suddenly, everything made sense. There must have been a mix-up with room assignments and some guy named Frank or whatever was supposed to have gotten the wonderful fourth-floor room and Frankie was supposed to be somewhere else. Unfortunately for her, this was not the first time her male-sounding preferred name had caused incidents of this nature. In high school, after insisting that her name on her school file be changed from Francine to Frankie, she had accidentally been placed in the boys' section of health class. Boy, was that an interesting half-hour before the teacher had realized the mix-up.

Frankie let out a knowing chuckle. "Sorry, guys. I think there's been a mistake. I'm not here for your roommate. I _am_ your roommate."

Both men stared back at Frankie, oddly silent even though it looked like they each had about a million things they wanted to say.

" _You're_ Frank?" The first guy gawked.

"I'm Frank _ie_."

Silence fell over Frankie and the two strangers while they just stood in place, unsure of what to do or say next. Eventually, Frankie took charge of the situation and assured the two slightly tipsy men that she would be out of their hair as soon as possible.

"I'll go back down to the administration building tomorrow and sort this out," Frankie said as she headed for her room. "Sorry for the confusion. Have a good night."

With that, Frankie closed her bedroom door on the two shocked men and exhaled. Just when she thought that she had gotten through all of her housing stress, there was this.

Of course, the room on the fourth floor with private bedrooms was too good to be true. Well, at least she had enjoyed it while it had lasted, however short that may have been.


	2. Chapter 2

When Frankie awoke the next morning, slightly upset that this would be her first and final time waking up in a private room, she got dressed and ready for her day before cautiously stepping out of her room. Thankfully, her roommates were either still sleeping or had already left.

Replaying the immensely awkward events of the night before in her head, Frankie brushed her teeth and applied a light coat of makeup before grabbing a granola bar and heading out the door.

Unlike the year previous, Frankie didn't have to worry about leaving for her classes an hour early to give herself time to find everything. This year, she was already familiar with the campus and knew exactly where she needed to go for all of her classes. The only part she was a little unsure about was her tour of the academy hospital in the afternoon, since she had never had a clinical rotation before, but her class instructions simply stated to meet in the lobby for the group tour, and she was quite confident she could locate the lobby without much trouble.

After an early start to the day and a jam-packed schedule, Frankie was already plenty exhausted by the time she had finished her hospital tour. As exciting as the hospital tour had been, especially since Frankie had recognized a few familiar faces from her first-year classes, she was struggling to push through; and she still needed to visit the administration building to sort out her housing situation.

Like the day before, the admin building was full to the brim with students. So, like the day before, Frankie settled herself into a wildly uncomfortable chair and pulled out one of her textbooks.

Thirty minutes into her wait, a man sat down beside Frankie. He had dark brown skin, glasses, and was wearing the usual red cadet uniform. The man flashed a kind smile at Frankie as he took a seat.

Frankie smiled back out of politeness before going back to her reading, hoping that the smile hadn't been taken as an invitation to strike up a conversation. Unfortunately, that seemed to be exactly the case.

"A Comprehensive Guide of Alien Health Assessment." The man read the title of Frankie's book. "Let me guess, medical."

Frankie sighed but tried not to come off as rude. "Yup," she answered.

"Must be exciting" he said. "Is it as stressful as everyone says it is? I feel like every medical student I meet is on the verge of a breakdown."

"Stressful but worth it." Frankie tried to keep her answers brief and to-the-point, thinking that maybe the guy would get the hint and stop talking to her. He most definitely did not get the hint, however.

Shifting in his chair so he was facing Frankie, the man held out his hand. "I'm Franklin Warren. But my friends call me by my middle name, Wade."

Frankie paused before slowly looking up at the man as realization washed over her. "Hello." She shook his hand, suddenly have a change of heart about engaging in a conversation. "You wouldn't happen to be here because of a housing mix-up, would you? Possibly because you were placed with female roommates?"

Wade slowly withdrew his hand, obviously concerned about how or why this stranger knew this information. "Yeah . . ." he replied. "How did you know?"

"Because I'm Francine Warren. Frankie. I think I've got your room and you've got mine."

After a few brief minutes of chatting, Frankie and Wade soon realized that they had so much in common that it was a wonder this sort of mistake hadn't happened the year before. Both of them had similar first names on file, both of their last names happened to be Warren, and they had both encountered the same kind of accommodation troubles at the last minute, leading to the need for last-minute room changes.

"So what is my roommate like?" Wade asked.

Frankie shrugged. "There's actually two of them but I honestly don't know much about them. I don't even know their names. We only interacted for about five minutes last night and they were a little too shocked and a little too tipsy to carry out much of a conversation. One of them is in medicine as well, that's all I do know."

"Well, hopefully, they're cool guys."

"Yeah," Frankie agreed. "What about my roommate? What is she like?"

Wade's eyes lit up. "Oh, she's awesome, you're gonna love her. Her name is Maggie and she's studying history, both Earth's and other planets'. She's got a smile that lights up the room and is so easy going. Plus, she's really funny."

Frankie couldn't help but chuckle. "It sounds like the two of you really hit it off."

"Yeah." Wade scratched the back of his neck and smiled sheepishly. "After we got over the initial shock of being assigned co-ed roommates, we got along really well. I'm actually kind of bummed that I'm gonna have to move."

"That sucks." Frankie felt bad for Wade, she really did, but she would be lying if she said she wasn't over-the-moon to hear that her roommate was so cool.

Wade nodded in defeat as yet another student was ushered into one of the many offices of the admin building. Then, a hopeful look spread across his face and he looked over at Frankie.

"Unless, you know . . . we didn't change rooms?" He suggested.

Frankie was a little thrown by that. "Oh, well . . . I mean . . ."

"No one knows about this little mix up beside you and me," Wade tried to convince Frankie. "As far as the academy is concerned, you're me and I'm you. If we didn't tell anyone about this, we could theoretically stay exactly where we are. I mean, who _really_ wants to be moving all of their stuff across campus once classes have started anyway?"

Frankie was silent as she thought. As much as she wanted to tell Wade to suck it up and get the hell out of her room, she couldn't deny the way his entire mood lifted when he spoke about Maggie. It was obvious that he was head-over-heels for her, and if two people had connected that well in just one night, who was Frankie to break that up?

It was then that Frankie cursed her good-natured core and sighed. "I suppose there's no harm in keeping this mistake between us," she told him, sincerely hoping that this wasn't going to backfire on her in the long run. "But you owe me one."

Wade smiled wide. "You're the best, seriously. I know we've just met but I think we're going to be good friends. What do you want in return? Anything."

Frankie pondered for a moment. "I don't know."

"Drinks?" Wade suggested. "Or if that doesn't work, maybe I could just buy you lunch sometime?"

"Lunch works for me." Frankie nodded. "How's this Friday? We can meet in the hospital cafeteria at noon since I've got my clinical orientation that day."

"Done." Wade agreed. "I've just got a few engineering lectures in the morning."

"Thanks." Frankie stood up from her seat and grabbed her bag. "Well, I guess I should head back now. It was a pleasure doing business with you, Franklin."

"We're friends now, you can call me Wade . . . and likewise, Frankie." Wade stood as well and shook her hand as if they had just concluded an important meeting. "I hope your roommates don't suck too much."

Frankie forced a smile. "Yeah, me either."

With that, the two new acquaintances parted ways and returned to their respective rooms. During the walk across the quad, Frankie tried to think of how she was going to break the news to her roommates that they were going to be stuck with her. She really wished that she and the two men had gotten along so quickly and easily as Wade and Maggie had, but unfortunately for her, she didn't even know their names.

Punching in the four-digit code to her room, Frankie drew in a deep, calming breath before entering. Unlike the previous day, it was not empty when she stepped inside. Instead, both men from the night before were there. The one with the lighter hair and blue eyes was in the living room, watching something on TV, while the one with brown hair and a generally displeased look on his face sat at the table, notes and textbooks scattered all around him.

Setting her bag down by her feet, Frankie swallowed her apprehension and decided to just get the bad news out of the way right off of the bat. "Hello again," she greeted. "So, turns out that there isn't anything the admin staff can do about our little situation here. Something about already being over-capacity and having nowhere to put me."

Frankie clenched her hands slightly, praying that the two men wouldn't see through her lies. She didn't exactly think they would be too pleased to hear they would be rooming with a girl all because she had made some weird deal with a man she had met for the first time not thirty minutes ago.

"What about the guy who was _supposed_ to be living here with us?" The dark-haired man at the table inquired. "Why can't they just switch you two? The solution seems pretty simple to me."

 _Shit_. Trying her best not to show her true colours, Frankie shrugged lazily. "That's what I said. Apparently, it's not that easy." She tried being vaguer this time in an attempt to deter any further questions.

Somehow, it seemed to work, because, with a gruff exhale, the man at the table went back to his work. The man on the couch, however, paused what he had been watching and turned to look at Frankie over the back of the couch.

"This could be kind of fun," he said with a wiggle of his eyebrows. "A happy mistake, possibly."

"Yeah . . ." Frankie trailed off, not wanting to address that. "Well, I think that as long as we set some ground rules and stay out of each other's hair, this shouldn't be too bad. I'm in my second year of medicine so I'll be pretty busy most of the time. Plus, I'll eventually have early morning and night shifts at the hospital, so I probably won't even be around that much, and when I am, I'll be in my room."

"Medicine?!" The man on the couch perked up. "You don't say. Bones here is in medicine as well. Third-year."

Frankie turned to the man at the table, who hadn't even bothered to look up at her again. "Bones?" She quirked an eyebrow. "I'm guessing that's a nickname?"

"No, my parents named me Bones," he grumbled. "You are incredibly astute."

The man on the couch rolled his eyes. "Ignore my friend here, he's usually not this grumpy."

"Yes, I am."

"Okay." She looked between the two men. "Well, like I said last night, I'm Frankie. It's a pleasure to officially meet you . . . I guess?"

"Please, the pleasure is all ours." Couch man stood up and walked out with his hand outstretched. "Jim. Jim Kirk." He introduced himself. "And my rather rude friend here is Leonard McCoy."

"Jim and Leonard," Frankie repeated the names, committing them to memory. "And you're both in your third year?"

Jim smiled. "That we are. So, if you need any tips about second-year, just ask."

"That invitation does not extend to me," Leonard said. "I don't have time to babysit."

Frankie felt just a tad bit offended by that. Just because she was a little younger didn't mean she needed 'babysitting.' "I think I'll be fine, but thanks for the offer," she told Jim. "Are there any rules I should know about? I'm usually good to just go with the flow."

"No, not really," Jim shrugged.

"Yes." The thought of letting their new roommate run rampant without any rules was enough to tear Leonard away from his studying. "No guests after 10 pm. No messes in the common area. Everyone cleans up after themselves, and that includes the bathroom and kitchen. No parties."

Jim squinted slightly. "Now, we didn't exactly agree to that last one."

"Jim, if I come home after a long day and find my room filled with drunk strangers, I will kill you."

"So, what you're saying is we'll revisit the party rule at a later date?"

Frowning, Leonard's eyes dropped back down to the textbook he was reading and highlighting.

"Well, I'm not much of a party person," Frankie said. "And all the other rules seem perfectly reasonable to me. Glad we could hash this out so painlessly."

"Agreed." Leonard nodded.

With that, Leonard tuned everything around him out and focused solely on his work. Jim, still muttering to himself about the 'no party' rule that he strongly disagreed with, returned to the couch and resumed whatever he was watching.

Feeling that things could have gone a lot worse, Frankie grabbed her bag and retreated into her room. Although Jim and Leonard seemed like tolerable roommates—albeit, maybe a little too friendly in some aspects and not friendly enough in others—she didn't yet feel comfortable enough to go about her daily activities in the common area with them.

So, in the privacy of her own room, she changed into some more comfortable clothes and set up her study supplies at her desk. As much as she wanted to study in bed, she knew that as soon as her body met the soft embrace of the mattress, she would fall asleep.

Thankfully, the first day of classes was more or less just introductions to the professors and course content, but Frankie wasn't foolish enough to believe that that meant she didn't have any work to do. If she wanted to stay on top of her game, she needed to be prepared for the next day ahead of her.

By the time Frankie pulled her head out of her books that evening, the sun had already gone down and the only light in her bedroom came from the warm glow of her desk lamp, which she didn't even remember turning on.

Rubbing the exhaustion from her eyes, Frankie concluded that she had probably done enough prep work for one night and that it was time to grab some food and relax a little to let the information soak in before she slept.

Before she left her bedroom, however, she remembered the way Jim had ogled her body earlier and threw a hoodie over her tank top just to be safe. The last thing she wanted was for any of her roommates to get any wrong ideas about this rather unusual predicament. Not that either one of them was hard on the eyes, exactly, but she was hoping to avoid making anything any more awkward than it already was.

Slowly, as if she were sneaking out, Frankie opened her bedroom door and scanned the common area. The television had been turned off and Jim was no longer sitting on the couch, but Leonard was still sitting at the table, and somehow, it looked like he hadn't moved a muscle since Frankie had last seen him.

Trying not to disrupt the man's focus, Frankie stepped out of her room and padded across the room as quietly as possible. Leonard had clocked her presence with a flicker of his eyes in her direction, but he didn't say a word.

Moving like a deer in headlights, Frankie pulled out a pre-made dinner from the freezer and popped it into the microwave. While she waited for the meal to cook, Frankie found herself glancing over Leonard's shoulder at what he was reading; it was the same textbook she had flipped open when she had first arrived at the room.

He was reading about common diseases that a medical officer was likely to encounter in space and writing notes in the margins of the book. Frankie couldn't help but be interested in it; she had always found diseases to be rather interesting; especially the rare ones that no one knew much about.

Then, causing Frankie to jump with surprise, the microwave went off with a series of loud beeps. The noise startled Leonard as well and his shoulders flinched ever-so-slightly.

Not wanting to get caught intruding, Frankie rushed over to the microwave, pulled her meal out, and grabbed a fork. Just as she was about to head back to her room, Leonard spoke up. "Please don't read over my shoulder." He barely looked up at her. "It's unnerving."

Frankie felt her blood run cold. "Sorry." She apologized. "I just think it's fascinating, is all."

"Do you even know what this stuff is?" he asked, his tone condescending.

Frankie scoffed. Was this guy serious? Did he actually think she was stupid? "Well, contrary to your belief, yes, I do." Frankie narrowed her eyes. "You know, I'm only one year behind you . . . not ten."

"Yeah, well, there's still a lot you don't know, kid."

Frankie rolled her eyes dramatically. "Well, there's evidently some things you don't know either."

Leonard's attention actually piqued at this. "And what makes you think that?" He smirked.

"Because that note you wrote in the margin of your textbook says that interspacial parasites cause retrograde amnesia when they _actually_ cause anterograde amnesia."

Stunned, Leonard looked down at his book where he had, in fact, written down the wrong type of amnesia caused by interspacial parasites. Still, he kept his composure and quickly put a line through the mistake.

"It's late. I'm tired," he explained. "One mistake doesn't mean I'm not vastly more advanced than you."

"I never said it did," Frankie retorted. "But one year behind doesn't mean I'm vastly less advanced than you. Last time I checked, Starfleet doesn't accept idiots, and I'm here, aren't I?"

Leonard just exhaled through his nose and directed his attention back to his work.

Frankie thought about suggesting he take it easy for the rest of the night considering he was making mistakes, but she decided against it. From what she could tell from Leonard, anything she said had the potential to piss him off, and the last thing she wanted was to get on her roommate's bad side on their first official day together.

So, to try and keep the relative peace, Frankie retired to her room for the rest of the night with her pre-made meal in hand. If she was lucky, Leonard was just having a bad day and things would be much better tomorrow. If not, she was going to have to seriously figure out a way to coexist with someone who was hell-bent on disliking her.


	3. Chapter 3

By the end of the week, Frankie had learned—much to her dismay—that the initial foul-mood that Leonard had been in when they had first met was not, in fact, a one-time thing. If anything, he had been right when he had said he was always that grumpy because he most certainly was.

The two men, who Frankie guessed to be at least five or so years older than herself, were polar opposites of each other; and it left Frankie wondering how the two had ever become friends in the first place. While Jim took every opportunity available to him to try and get to know Frankie better, even though there were clear ulterior motives, Leonard took every opportunity to actively avoid Frankie.

In the past three days, Leonard had spoken to Frankie maybe a grand total of three times, and two of those were to complain about things she did that annoyed him, such as taking too long in the bathroom or playing music out loud in her bedroom when she was studying. Each time, Frankie had simply apologized and tried to do better in the future, but that annoying doctor was quickly getting on her nerves.

Now that it was Friday, Frankie was relieved that she had gotten through her first week of second-year without having a breakdown or throat punching her roommate. The only downside to the weekend would be spending two full days in her room, unsure if Jim or Leonard would be around or if they had plans. Hopefully, she wouldn't see much of them.

When her clinical orientation broke for lunch, Frankie headed down to the lobby to meet Wade in the cafeteria. She had actually been looking forward to having lunch with him because out of every new person she had met thus far, he was easily the most tolerable.

Spotting the familiar face waiting in line for food, Frankie joined him with a friendly smile. "Hey," she greeted. "How's it going?"

"Good, thank you." Wade smiled in return. "You?"

Frankie sighed. "I suppose it could be worse."

"That bad, hey?"

After ordering lunch, which Wade paid for, and finding a spot to sit down, the two chatted about the events of their first week back at the academy and swapped stories. Frankie even asked why he preferred to go by his middle name, and he answered that he had started going by Wade instead of Franklin to fit in with the popular kids in school and it had just stuck. Then, the conversation found itself on the topic of roommates.

"So, how are you and Maggie getting along?" Frankie asked as she speared a tomato from her salad with her fork.

Wade couldn't contain the joy he was feeling. "It's going great, actually. Sharing a room with her is awesome. Way better than my last roommate . . . he snored impossibly loud and always left his clothes around."

Frankie winced at the thought of a roommate that bad. "Well, I'm glad I could assist in your happy future," she said. "I don't mean to pry here, but it seems as though you might be . . . romantically interested in Maggie."

Wade's cheeks flushed with heat, but it was hard to tell from the colour of his skin. "That obvious, huh?"

"Yeah, but I think it's sweet," Frankie assured him. "Are you going to ask her out?"

"I sort of already did, actually. The two of us are going out for drinks tonight. I phrased it more like a roommate hang-out rather than a date, but I think it's a good start."

Frankie smirked. "I applaud your confidence, Wade. I was never good at making the first move."

"You should totally come!" Wade exclaimed. "It'll be fun and having you there will take the pressure off of it just being her and I. You can bring your roommates too if you want."

Frankie scrunched up her face. "Oh, no, I don't think that's a good idea."

Wade took a bite of his hamburger and wiped the corner of his mouth with a napkin. "Roommate trouble?"

"You could definitely say that," Frankie answered. "Jim is a little too interested in the fact that I'm female and Leonard would probably sooner shoot himself in the foot with a nailgun than be in the same room as me."

"Jeez," Wade commented. "And what are they studying?"

"Jim is . . . well, actually, I have no idea what Jim is studying. Whatever it is, he doesn't seem to put a whole lot of effort into it. Maybe that's because he's just naturally talented or maybe he is just happy with barely scraping by. Leonard, on the other hand, is always reading and writing notes and doing whatever else it is that he does. He's in medicine as well, but he studies like he's fitting all four years into one."

Wade cocked an eyebrow. "And you said these two were friends, right? They seem like they operate in completely different worlds."

"I'm just as confused as you are," Frankie said. "But yeah, they're best friends. Jim is the only one who doesn't seem to piss Leonard off by simply existing."

Wade snorted. "Okay, well, then maybe just you come for drinks tonight? What do you say?"

"Sounds like fun." Frankie agreed. "I'm in. I could use a night spent with someone other than horny and grumpy."

Wade laughed loudly at that before he began coughing and had to take a sip of water. While Wade soothed his throat, Frankie looked over at the never-ending flow of students and faculty milling about the hospital lobby. Then, she saw him. Sitting at the far end of the cafeteria, Leonard was seated alone at a table, a sandwich in one hand and his PADD in the other.

"Speaking of grumpy." Frankie gestured toward Leonard with a nod of her head.

"Oh, that's him?" Wade's eyes widened. "He doesn't look too bad. Maybe a little stand-offish."

"Try a lot stand-offish."

As Frankie looked back over her shoulder to take one final glance, Leonard looked up from his PADD and their eyes met for a brief moment. Feeling her heart rate increase, Frankie quickly looked away.

"Oh, my God, he saw us staring," she whispered even though there was no possible way that Leonard could have heard her from across the cafeteria.

"If you think that's bad, wait till you find out he's coming over here," Wade said.

Frankie's heart dropped into her stomach. " _What?_ "

"Yeah, he's definitely coming over here."

"Oh, fuck me."

"Frankie." The southern drawl made it impossible for Frankie to not know who was standing behind her, no matter how long she refused to look back at him. "Will you be in the room this evening?"

Frankie glued her eyes to Wade, silently pleading with him to save her. "Ugh, I actually have plans tonight. Will probably be back late."

"Okay, good." With that, Leonard turned on his heel and started to walk away.

"Why?" Frankie found herself asking before she could stop herself.

Halting, Leonard turned back around. "Because if you were planning on studying in the room tonight, I would have advised you against it."

Frankie pursed her lips. "Ugh, again . . . why?"

"Because it's Friday and I've known Jim long enough to know that his room on a Friday night is probably the least ideal place to concentrate."

"I thought there was a 'no party' rule?"

"The first thing you need to know about Jim is that he rarely follows rules."

"Oh, okay. Thanks for telling me." Frankie nodded. "What do you do on Friday nights then?"

Leonard paused, clearly unsure about whether he should answer the personal question; no matter how mild it was. "I'm either at the library or working at the hospital."

Then, before Frankie could ask any more questions, Leonard left and was soon lost to the lobby crowd.

"Yikes, he's intense." Wade snickered. "Now I really _am_ glad that our room assignments got swapped."

"Yeah, you're gonna have to buy me a few more of these lunches to make up for that I think."

Wade took another sip of his water. "Yeah, that's fair."

After finishing their lunches, Frankie and Wade parted ways with the plan to meet up at one of the campus bars, Saturn's Ring, around 9 pm. With her stomach full from lunch and also a little queasy from her uncomfortable interaction with Leonard, Frankie met back up with her class for the remainder of their clinical orientation.

The orientation instructor ended the presentation with a tour of all the departments that the second-years would be doing their clinical rotations in (a much more in-depth tour than the initial one on the first day) and passed around the sign-up sheet for clinical.

When Frankie was passed the clipboard and pen, she was delighted to find that most of the spots were still open, so she had a pretty free pick of her clinical schedule. Deciding to start out relatively calm, she chose to work in the lab for her first rotation, followed by general medicine, the emergency room, surgery, and finally the ICU.

After that, the class was divided into what their first clinical rotation would be and the students were given a few minutes to meet the people they would be working with during the first month.

The laboratory rotation consisted of three women, including Frankie, and four men. Everyone seemed nice enough based on the initial meeting, but before anyone could get to know each other super well, the orientation had come to an end and everyone was free to start their weekend.

Overjoyed that her first week was officially over, Frankie headed straight back to her room to fit in an hour or so of studying and a quick cat-nap before she needed to start getting ready for that night.

The room was empty when Frankie returned, but it didn't matter much because she secluded herself away in her room right away and didn't emerge again until about 7 pm.

After showering and doing her hair and makeup the best she could with what little skills she had, Frankie changed into a pair of black jeans, her most comfortable pair of heels (which wasn't saying much considering every pair of heels she owned ended up hurting her feet by the end of the night), and a dark green top. While still dressing somewhat modestly, she still wanted to make sure she wasn't going to be sweating from all of the body heat in the bar.

Just before 9, Frankie grabbed her purse and exited her room. As usual, Leonard was nowhere to be seen, but Jim was pouring drinks in the kitchen for the few guests he already had waiting in the living room. Suddenly, Frankie was grateful for the warning Leonard had given her because if she hadn't already had plans, she definitely would have wanted to make some.

"Hey, Frankie!" Jim cheered, clearly already a little buzzed. "Hey, guys, this is Frankie!" He shouted to his friends, who all waved in turn.

"Big plans for tonight?" Frankie questioned even though she already knew the answer.

"Oh, just a few drinks with some friends. Nothing too crazy." Jim inspected Frankie's outfit. "I could ask you the same thing though."

Frankie chuckled before parroting his answer back at him. "Oh, just a few drinks with some friends. Nothing too crazy."

Jim smirked; a smirk that had probably been the downfall of many a woman. "Before you go, do a shot with me." He already started pouring two shots of tequila before Frankie had even answered.

"Well, I'm never one to turn down free alcohol." Frankie took the shot glass from him, vaguely remembering what had happened the last time she had drunk tequila.

"To roommates and new friends!" He clinked his glass against her's before downing the liquor with ease.

"To roommates and new friends!" Frankie repeated before throwing the liquid back, trying her best to swallow without tasting. "Have a good night, Jim. I'll see you later."

"Don't do anything I wouldn't do!" he shouted after her as she disappeared out the door. 


	4. Chapter 4

Frankie could hear and feel the music coming from Saturn's Ring before she had even stepped foot through the front doors. She supposed it was normal for a bar to be so packed during the first Friday of the new academic year, but never before had she seen so many people stuffed into such a relatively small space; not that the bar was necessarily small in its own right, but only in comparison to the number of occupants.

Saturn's Ring was half bar, half club, meaning it was the main attraction for people of all types; whether you were looking for a stiff drink or to dance until you found someone to take you home for the night, it was the perfect hub. By 9 pm, the dance floor was already packed and the bar was surrounded by thirsty students.

As soon as Frankie entered the building, she made a bee-line for the far corner of the bar where Wade had told her he was going to try and get a booth. Sure enough, there he was with a beautiful light-skinned woman, who she assumed was Maggie.

"Hey, Frankie, over here!" Wade waved her over as soon as he spotted her.

"Hey!" Frankie had to shout over the music. "This place is crazy tonight!"

"Right?" Wade chuckled before gesturing to the woman beside him. "This is Maggie."

Maggie was insanely beautiful. Her hair was short, dark brown, and tightly spiralled. Her eyes were a brilliant shade of green

Right away, Maggie stuck out her hand to shake Frankie's. "I suppose you're who I need to thank that Wade and I can keep being roommates. Thank you."

"Oh, so he told you the truth," Frankie noted.

"Yeah, of course." Maggie nodded. "What did you tell your roommates?"

Frankie smiled sheepishly. "That there was nothing the admin staff could do. My roommates and I don't exactly get along as well as you two."

"Awh, that's too bad."

"It is what it is. No sense dwelling on it," Frankie said. "So, let's get some drinks, yeah?"

"Hell yeah." Wade jumped up out of the booth and started toward the bar, Frankie and Maggie in tow.

Ten minutes later, the trio was sipping on their drinks and chatting happily among themselves. Maggie shared some interesting historical facts from her classes, Wade ranted about the engineering test he had coming up the following week, and Frankie voiced her nervous concerns about starting her clinical rotations.

What was once ten minutes soon turned into two hours, and in a slightly drunken decision, the trio dragged their tipsy selves onto the dance floor. It was there that Frankie ran into a familiar face.

"Oh, my God!" a woman shrieked after accidentally bumping into Frankie on the dance floor. "Frankie?! It's me, Uhura. Jillian's friend, remember?"

Instantly, Frankie recalled the woman who had she has spent a lot of time hanging out with the year before. "Yes, of course! How are you?"

"I'm great!" Uhura had to yell to be heard over the loud pop song blaring through the speakers. "It's a shame about Jillian though. Did you hear what happened?"

Frankie shook her head. "No, I was just told she wasn't coming back this year. I tried to email her student email a few times over the summer, but she stopped responding after a while."

"Yeah, that makes sense." Uhura nodded. "Her father got diagnosed with an advanced form of cancer and her entire family packed up and moved to Sweden to be close to some super fancy oncologist."

"Oh, that's horrible." Frankie felt conflicted about having such a personal conversation in the middle of a packed dance floor. That seemed to be all Uhura was going to say on the matter, however, because the next second she was introducing her friends that she had come to the bar with.

The first girl's name was Gaila and from her bright green skin, it was easy to tell that she was from Orion. She had curly red hair and a bright smile. The second girl was blonde with wide, bright eyes. Her name, if Frankie had heard correctly, was Olivia.

Before long, Uhura and her friends had joined Frankie, Wade, and Maggie and together, as a group of six, they continued dancing and drinking well into the night.

Just after midnight, the group of six retired from the dancefloor and settled beside the bar, where the plan was to order one last drink and then call it a night. Things didn't exactly go as planned, however.

In her drunken state, Olivia accidentally knocked her glass off of the bar and it shattered on the floor by her feet. Then, in a momentary lapse of judgement, she reached down to pick up the broken glass before anyone stepped on it and ended up slicing open her hand.

"Oh, shit!" Olivia retracted her hand as blood started to drip from her palm and onto the floor. Startled and drunk, Gaila and Maggie jumped back, either surprised or disgusted by the sight of blood.

Frankie, however, switched into doctor mode and immediately sobered up as she grabbed a napkin from the bar and pressed it tightly to Olivia's hand. "Let's go into the bathroom so we can get a better look at that," she said.

Olivia, however, just stared wide-eyed at her hand. "It hurts," she whimpered.

"I know." Frankie left the others to alert the bartender to the mess while she led Olivia to the back of the establishment and into the single-person gender-neutral bathroom.

Once inside the bathroom, Frankie locked the door to give them some privacy and slowly pulled the napkin away from Olivia's hand. The fluorescent lights were harsh on the eyes, but they allowed Frankie to actually see the injury. Sure enough, Olivia had a large cut across her palm and a few smaller ones on her fingertips. While the smaller ones would heal perfectly fine all on their own, Frankie knew that the larger cut would need stitches.

"I hate to kill your buzz, but I'm going have to take you to the emergency room to get some stitches," Frankie said as she inspected Olivia's palm to make sure there were no remaining pieces of glass stuck in her flesh.

"How do you know?" Olivia asked.

"I'm a doctor," Frankie answered. "But then again, I don't think you'd need to be a doctor to know that this is a pretty nasty gash. Pretty deep, too."

Olivia sighed, although she didn't seem to be in much pain, despite the verbal indication she had made earlier; either she was too drunk or in too much shock, or both. Either way, it was probably for the best.

Grabbing some paper towels from the bathroom, Frankie wrapped Olivia's hand up again before leading her out of the bathroom.

"Are you okay?" Uhura rushed over as soon as she caught sight of the two exiting the bathroom.

Olivia nodded faintly. "Yeah, but Doctor Frankie says I'll need stitches."

"That means a trip to the hospital, doesn't it?" Uhura questioned.

"It's okay, you stay with everyone else and enjoy the rest of your night. I'll take Olivia." Frankie offered. "I'll make sure they take really good care of her."

Uhura paused to debate her options a moment, but eventually, she agreed and said goodbye to her friend. Gaila also came over to wish Olivia well as Frankie thanked Wade and Maggie for the wonderful night.

"We'll have to do this again sometime." Maggie smiled wide. "It was fun . . . before someone got hurt, that is."

Frankie laughed. "Yes, definitely."

With that, Frankie exchanged numbers with everyone in the group so that they could plan a hangout again for the future and so she could update them on Olivia's progress. Then, she wrapped a protective arm around the stumbling, injured blonde girl and led her out of the bar just as the staff finished cleaning up the broken glass and blood.

The cool night air hit Frankie like a freight train and if she hadn't been alert and sobered up before, then she definitely was now. Olivia, on the other hand, merely seemed to be coming out of her initial shock and was starting to actually register the singing on her hand. That, mixed with all the alcohol in her system made for a very difficult and long walk across campus to the hospital.

With a little bit of luck and a lot of patience, Frankie finally managed to drag Olivia through the sliding ER doors and plop her down in one of the chairs in the waiting room. Then, she approached the triage desk and waited for a nurse to greet her.

While she waited, Frankie scanned the waiting room and took notice of how many patients were there due to what looked like alcohol-induced injuries. Unsurprisingly, there were quite a few.

"Hello there, what seems to be the problem?" A nurse with a smile way too friendly for one in the morning approached the desk.

"My friend." Frankie stepped to the side and pointed at Olivia. "She cut her hand on some broken glass. She'll probably need stitches."

"Okay." The nurse started making up a chart for Olivia before handing the clipboard over to Frankie. "Have a seat and try to fill in as much information as you can for your friend. We'll bring you back as soon as we have room."

"Thanks." Frankie grabbed a pen from the desk and returned to Olivia's side.

After twenty minutes of asking the same question multiple times and digging through Olivia's purse for some of her personal information, Frankie managed to get the form filled out and returned it to the nurse. Then all there was left to do was wait, which from her experience, was usually the hardest part.

With her arm wrapped around Olivia, who had fallen asleep soon after the form had been completed, Frankie watched the news playing on the television in the corner of the waiting room and felt the remainder of her delightful buzz fade away.

By the time the nurse called Frankie and Olivia back to one of the ER beds, all Frankie was feeling was tired and ready to go home. But, just like she said she would, she was going to stay with Olivia and make sure she got taken care of.

Sitting in the chair beside the bed, Frankie watched as Olivia's eyes fluttered open and closed. The blonde girl was on the brink of falling asleep again when the privacy curtain around the bed was yanked back and both women jumped slightly.

"Looks like we've got a cut hand?" The doctor stepped up to the bedside, his eyes trained on the PADD in his hands. Frankie recognized that voice immediately, and just her luck, it was Leonard. Suddenly, she wasn't tired anymore. Instead, she was on edge, waiting for him to notice her and say something characteristically snippy.

Sure enough, when Olivia didn't answer him, Leonard looked up and scoffed. "Oh, it's you." He placed the PADD onto the bedside table. "What happened?"

"She cut herself on broken glass at the bar," Frankie answered. "It should say that in the chart, though. I should know. I filled out all the information."

Leonard grabbed a pair of latex gloves and quickly snapped them onto his hands. "I saw on the chart that you also recommended stitches." He pulled up a seat next to the bed and took Olivia's injured hand in his own hands.

"I did." Frankie sat back in her chair and crossed her arms. "So, was I right, _Doctor?_ "

"Surprisingly, yes." Leonard stood up again and left without another word. Frankie assumed he was grabbing a suture kit, but she couldn't be sure because he refused to even look her in the eyes, let alone communicate like a normal person.

Frankie seriously questioned how he had graduated from medical school with a bedside manner akin to a colony of fire ants.

"Maybe it's the vodka talking, but that doctor is attractive." Olivia finally shimmied a little so she was sitting up straighter in bed.

"Oh, it's definitely the vodka talking." Frankie patted Olivia's uninjured hand comfortingly. "Just lie back and relax. We'll be out of here soon enough."

Olivia let out a soft giggle before fixing her hair a little. Frankie just rolled her eyes, unsure if she really wanted to be around for the interesting display she was no doubt about to witness.

A few minutes later, Leonard returned with a suture kit in hand. As he sat back down and began setting up the kit on the portable table with wheels, Olivia noticed the syringe for the lidocaine, which would numb her hand for the stitches.

"Oh, you never said anything about needles." Olivia gasped. "I hate needles."

"Of course, you do," Leonard muttered under his breath.

Realizing then that she was going to have to be the one to calm Olivia down for the procedure, Frankie stood up from her chair and sat on the side of the bed. "What did you think I was talking about what I said you would need stitches?"

"I don't know! I wasn't thinking at all." Olivia couldn't take her eyes off of the needle. "I really don't want any needles. Please, I have a phobia. Can't we just leave the cut to heal on its own?"

"No, we can't," Leonard said as he pulled on a clean pair of gloves. "Now, if you don't mind, I have other patients. Can we get this over with?"

"Charming bedside manner, Doctor McCoy." Frankie held Olivia's other hand tightly. "Look at me, Olivia, not at the needle."

Olivia's eyes nervously flitted over to Frankie. "O-okay. Now what?"

"Why don't you tell me about what you're studying? What classes are you taking this term?"

Olivia swallowed hard. "Well, I'm majoring in communications with Uhura."

"That's so interesting." Frankie watched Leonard out of the corner of her eye as he filled the syringe with the local anesthetic. "I was never good at learning new languages. I'm just plain horrible at it."

"I was always able to pick them up super easily," Olivia said, her face souring for a second when Leonard gave her the injection. "Oh, that wasn't so bad, actually."

Frankie smiled. "See? Nothing to worry about. Now the good doctor just has to stitch you all up, but you shouldn't feel a thing."

"Thanks for being here with me." Olivia let her head fall back against the bed. "You're a good person. I bet you're a great doctor, too."

Frankie smiled softly. "You know what, while Doctor McCoy gets you all sorted, I'll tell you one of my favourite stories from medical school. You'll love it."

"Are you sure it'll distract me enough?"

Frankie waved a hand at Olivia. "Please, between my superb storytelling skills and Doctor McCoy's excellent suturing skills, you won't even know anything is happening."

Apprehension visible in her eyes, Olivia leaned closer to Frankie and lowered her voice. "How do you know he has excellent suturing skills?"

"He's my roommate," Frankie whispered with a wink. "Trust me."

Olivia smiled. "Okay."

While Leonard threw a few quick stitches into Olivia's palm, he listened as Frankie continued to calm the drunk girl like a fussy child at bedtime and told her a story. Frankie ended up sharing a story about the time in her first year of medical school when she and her fellow classmates had competed to see who could paint the most nails of one of the lab rats while sustaining the least amount of bites. It wasn't a particularly medical-based story, considering it was from medical school, but it was perfect for distracting a drunk, frightened woman.

While she told her story to Olivia, Frankie glanced over at Leonard every once in a while to see how far along he was and also, without necessarily noticing, admiring his technique. Despite the bags under his eyes that indicated he was beyond tired from a long night shift in the ER, his hands remained remarkably steady while he worked.

Leonard didn't notice these looks, however. He was much too focused on the task at hand, but he did find himself taking his time with the final few stitches so he could hear the end of Frankie's story. Then, once the tale had come to an end, he announced that he was finished.

"Perfect timing." Frankie's mood had lifted slightly now that she knew Olivia was going to be okay. "You did awesome."

"You were right, Frankie, he does have excellent skills," Olivia said more than loud enough for Leonard to hear. "You also have an excellent face," she told him directly.

Leonard froze in place, unsure how to respond. "Ugh, thanks?" He tried to busy himself with cleaning up.

"Are you single?"

Frankie had to work hard at containing her amusement, both at Olivia's drunken boldness and Leonard's exhausted confusion.

"I don't think that's an appropriate question," he responded.

"I think Leonard is right," Frankie told Olivia. "It's time to get you back home anyway."

Olivia cocked an eyebrow. "How do you know the doctor's first name?" Her eyes then suddenly lit up. "Oh, right, you're roommates! Wait a minute, are you two . . . you know . . . more than roommates? I'm sorry I hit on your boyfriend, Frankie. I'm really drunk."

"Oh, no, he is absolutely _not_ my boyfriend." Frankie shut that down right away. "We're just roommates. That's it."

"Awh, that's sad. He's really handsome."

"Oh yeah, real easy on the eyes." Frankie agreed sarcastically as she moved quickly to get Olivia out of the bed so they could leave. "Come on, let's go."

Then, without warning, Olivia threw a wave over her shoulder at Leonard and started for the exit all on her own. Letting out a sigh, Frankie pressed her fingers to her temples and willed herself to just get through the last little bit of the night.

"Don't worry, I'll give her the lowdown on wound care," Frankie told Leonard as she turned to leave as well.

"Thanks for your help," he said, barely loud enough to hear.

Frankie huffed. "Yeah, well, you might want to work on your people skills a little."

"A simple 'you're welcome' would have sufficed."

"Would it have?" Frankie played dumb with a coy smirk on her face. "Well, I'll remember that for the next time you're unable to handle a five foot three drunk woman on your own."

Leonard frowned. "Just get out."

"Have a good rest of your shift." Frankie teased. "See you back at the room, roomie!"

With that, Frankie broke out into a jog to catch up to Olivia. With the girl sober enough to walk in a straight line now, Frankie was able to get her back across campus and into her room with ease—although getting her room code out of her was like pulling teeth.

Once Olivia was safe in bed with her roommate watching over her, Frankie started back the way she had come, toward her own room. The second wave of exhaustion now setting in and the time on her watch stating that it was almost 2 am, Frankie was more than ready for bed.

When Frankie was greeted with the sight of empty solo cups strewn across the floor and various people passed out on the couch and floor when she opened the door to her room, she wasn't even phased.

Jim, who was passed out hard in his bed with his bedroom door wide open, had clearly thrown a rager of a party. Even though Frankie wished she could wait to see Leonard's reaction to the state of the room when he got back from the hospital, she was much too tired to even keep her eyes open any longer.

As soon as she got into her room and sat down on her bed, she kicked her heels off and fell back onto the duvet. Her eyes fell shut seconds later and as her breathing slowed, she was out like a light.

Thank God the next day was Saturday and she didn't have any classes, because she was most definitely going to need a night of good, long sleep to recover from the evening she had just had. 


	5. Chapter 5

When Frankie finally woke the next morning, the sun was shining brightly through her window and the alarm clock next to her bed read 10:36 am. Groaning, she slowly pushed herself up and realized that she had passed out on top of her bed covers, with her clothes still on and a full face of makeup.

Thankfully, since she had gotten a chance to sober up before falling asleep, she wasn't suffering any major hangover symptoms. Mostly, all she wanted was a large drink of ice-cold water and a long, hot shower. Then, she could worry about getting some of her classwork done.

Not even bothering to change out of the clothes she had worn to the bar and slept in, Frankie ventured out of her bedroom and was surprised to see that the room had been completely cleaned up from the night before; no longer were there cups and sleeping bodies everywhere.

"Impressive," Frankie muttered to herself.

"Yeah, for all of his faults, Jim knows how to clean up." A voice came out nowhere and Frankie let out a startled screech. Then, Leonard sat up from where he had been lying on the couch.

Clutching her chest, Frankie willed her frantic heart to calm. "You scared the fuck out of me." She frowned at him. "What are you doing on the couch?"

Leonard made a 'duh' face. "Well, I _was_ sleeping."

"On the couch? You have a perfectly good bed and a room with a door."

"The door may close but the walls are thin," Leonard said. "Jim's room is right next to mine."

Catching Leonard's drift, Frankie snickered. "Ah, I see." She made her way into the small kitchen and grabbed a glass from the cabinet. "He was passed out when I got home last night."

"Apparently he had caught his second wind by the time my shift was over." Leonard grabbed one of his textbooks from the coffee table in front of the couch, indicating that he had done even more studying after getting home the night before. "I'm used to it. Speaking of my shift, how's your friend, ugh . . . ?"

"Olivia." Frankie filled her glass with water from the tap. "From my gathering of her crawling into bed with a happy grin on her face last night, she's doing just fine. I doubt she remembers any of the information I told her about the stitches though. I'll probably have to text her."

Leonard actually cracked a smile. "I doubt she remembers the stitches. That'll be a fun revelation once she wakes up."

"Could be worse. Could be a tattoo."

"You're not wrong."

Taking a few large gulps of her water, Frankie felt herself relax a little and wondered when the other shoe was going to drop. She and Leonard had never had a conversation this civil for this long before, and they were quickly entering uncharted territory.

Maybe he was less grumpy in the morning, which would be vastly different from how most people were in the morning. It would make sense though since Leonard McCoy seemed to be vastly different from most people in many regards. The one thing Frankie _had_ learned was that his southern drawl was stronger in the mornings.

"Is Jim gone then?" Frankie asked, trying to keep the conversation light.

Leonard, who had started flipping through his textbook, nodded. "He woke up early, cleaned the room, and left. God knows where though."

"At least he cleaned up," Frankie commented. "I can't even tell that not ten hours ago there was once a half-naked guy passed out right where you're sitting now."

Leonard's eyes closed slowly and he sighed. "I didn't need to know that."

"I know." Frankie grinned. Then, on a whim, she decided to extend an olive branch to see if the state of provocative turmoil between herself and Leonard could remain in the past. "Hey, I'm sorry about last night, by the way. I shouldn't have been so rude."

Leonard didn't look up right away, but his eyes did stop darting back and forth across the page he was reading. "Thanks." He eventually spoke.

Frankie leaned forward ever so slightly, waiting for his apology in return. It never came. The back and forth the night before in the ER definitely hadn't been a one-sided exchange, so there was no way that Frankie was the only one at fault.

"Do you maybe have anything to say to me in return?" Frankie encouraged.

Leonard shook his head. "No."

Frankie's hopeful demeanour vanished in the blink of an eye. "Not even an 'I'm sorry for being so curt and dismissive with you and your injured friend.'?"

"No."

"You're impossible."

"I'll tell you what. You work three back-to-back graveyard shifts in the emergency room while still balancing your studies and let me know if you're all rainbows and butterflies with every drunken fool that stumbles through the doors."

And there was the other shoe. Perfect.

"I'm going to take a shower." Frankie set her empty glass in the sink before shuffling away.

"I don't care."

That interaction between Frankie and Leonard had somehow managed to be the highlight of the entire weekend. In fact, it all pretty much went downhill from there. Leonard had decided to monopolize the dining table for his studying for the rest of Saturday and pretty much all of Sunday, not only forcing Frankie to study in her room but also making it incredibly awkward when she wanted to grab something to eat or drink.

Whenever possible, Frankie used the replicator for food in order to spend as little time in the kitchen as possible. Leonard never seemed to acknowledge her presence either way, but the more she stared at the back of his head, the more she wanted to throw a bag of frozen peas at it; so it was best she got in and out in as little time as possible.

Jim had even begun to notice the suffocating tension between his roommates, because how couldn't he? He couldn't understand why the two hated each other so much. Sure, maybe he was a little biased when it came to Leonard since they were best friends, but he wasn't completely intolerable, was he? And Frankie seemed like a perfectly normal woman and, in Jim's opinion, he and Leonard could have gotten stuck with a much worse roommate.

So, when Monday morning rolled around and the two were at each other's throats as they got ready to head to the hospital at the same time, Jim decided he was going to try and diffuse the tension; albeit, maybe not in the most conventional way.

At 4 pm that very Monday, when Frankie's first day of laboratory clinical rotation had come to an end and she was dead on her feet, she was looking forward to getting home and taking a power nap. While the lab was definitely a more advanced rotation than Frankie had initially assumed, she was also pleasantly surprised by how much she enjoyed it. When she had gone to medical school before Starfleet Academy, she hadn't gotten nearly enough lab and research experience.

Knowing that Leonard would probably be at the hospital for another few hours, Frankie smiled happily to herself as she opened the door to what she expected to be an empty room. What she was greeted with, however, was most definitely _not_ an empty room.

"Hey!" Jim smiled when he saw that his roommate had returned. "Just the person I was hoping to catch."

Frankie looked over her shoulder briefly to make sure there was no one behind her that Jim was speaking to. "Me?" She pointed to herself.

"Yes, you, silly!" Jim, who was sitting at the dining table (which, for once, wasn't covered in Leonard's things), pulled out the chair next to him. "Come, take a seat."

Slowly, Frankie dropped her bag by the door and approached Jim. "Is there someone holding you at gunpoint or something?" She was tempted to check all the rooms for intruders.

"No, I just wanted to talk." He gestured to the chair again.

Frankie, who was hoping that the sooner she complied the sooner she could nap, followed Jim's instructions and sat down. "What's up, Jim?" She suddenly got a sinking feeling in her gut. Was he going to ask her to leave the room? Could he even do that?

"We're friends, right?" He started.

Frankie took a moment to compose herself. That had not been what she was expected. "Sure, Jim." She nodded. "We're friends."

"I just . . ." He suddenly dropped his cheery demeanour. "Look, I know that things between you and Bones aren't exactly amicable but I don't want you to feel like a pariah in your own home. I see the way you walk on eggshells around here and I'm sorry."

Frankie was pleasantly surprised. "Oh, well . . . thank you, Jim. That's very nice of you to say." She relaxed in her seat a little. "I'm sorry if it's been weird for you as well. I'm sure it's not fun to be around us."

Jim scoffed and waved off Frankie's concern. "Watching Bones piss people off is like second-nature to me now. So, you should know that it's probably nothing personal. He is that way with most people."

"Good to know." Frankie nodded. "I have to ask . . . how did you two become friends in the first place? You guys are like polar opposites."

"Long story short, we met on the academy shuttle three years ago and I annoyed him relentlessly until he accepted me into his life," Jim answered with a triumphant smirk. "Bones is like a turtle but instead of just one shell, there are like ten shells you have to break through to get to the soft interior. But don't get it wrong, he _does_ have a soft interior . . . it's just way, way, _way_ down there."

Frankie chuckled a little. "I must admit, it's hard to believe that he has any emotions at all besides angry."

"Yeah, that usually is his go-to."

"Why?"

Jim shrugged. "Beats me. Might have something to do with the brutal divorce from his ex-wife but other than that, I haven't the foggiest. I've just always accepted that that's how he is."

"He was married once? _How?_ " Frankie slapped her hand over her mouth at the rude inflection of her tone when asking that. "Oh, I didn't mean it like that. I just meant . . . well, that means he must have been somewhat friendly at some point, right?"

"I don't really know much more than that. He doesn't like to talk about it, which makes sense," Jim said. "The most he's really ever told me is that his wife left him nothing but his bones in the divorce, hence my nickname for him."

"Oh, so _that's_ where it comes from." Frankie laughed. "I was wondering."

"Everyone usually is." Jim's smile faded and he suddenly got very serious. "But you can't tell him I told any of this to you. I just thought you ought to know so that maybe, the next time he says something absolutely uncalled for, you know it's not necessarily about you and don't take it personally."

Running her fingers over her lips, Frankie pretended to zip them closed. "I won't say a word," Frankie assured him. "Thank you, Jim. I really appreciate the effort you've made to make me feel welcome here."

"Hey, you said it, right? We're friends. That's what friends do."

"You as long as you're okay with your friend not liking Leonard."

Jim cackled. "Most of my friends don't like Leonard. It's nothing new."

Just then, the front door swung open and Leonard stepped into the room. Upon seeing Frankie and Jim sitting at the table together, he stopped in his tracks and stared at them.

"Ears burning?" Jim said under his breath.

"What?" Leonard cocked his head to the side.

"Oh, nothing, buddy. Don't worry about it." Jim lied. "You're home early."

Closing the door behind himself, Leonard nodded. "Yeah, light workload for once. What are you two doing?"

"We were talking about getting pizza for dinner," Jim lied again. "You want some?"

"Yeah, sure." Leonard made a bee-line for his bedroom. "You know the kind I like."

"I sure do, buddy!" Jim grinned wide at Leonard until he closed his bedroom door with a slightly concerned look on his face.

Once the door was shut, Jim turned back to Frankie, who was giggling. "Are we actually getting pizza?" she asked.

"Most definitely," Jim confirmed before grabbing a slip of paper that had been stuck to the fridge that Frankie had failed to notice before then. "Add your pizza order to the list."

Taking the paper from Jim, Frankie read over the two different pizza orders. "Pepperoni and bacon." Frankie read the first pizza choice. "That's a good one."

"That's mine." Jim took credit.

"A man after my own heart." Frankie scribbled down her pizza order, which was barbeque chicken and roasted red peppers. "Oh, no." She gasped as she read Leonard's order. "Ham and pineapple? He really doesn't want people to like him, does he?"

"No." Jim shook his head as he took the paper from Frankie. "He really doesn't."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Absolutely zero shade to anyone who likes ham and pineapple pizza because when I was a kid that was legit the only type of pizza I would eat. I just had to come up with a pizza that is commonly disliked and aside from making Leonard a complete monster who puts anchovies or something on his pizza, ham and pineapple was the best I could come up with.


	6. Chapter 6

With Jim now having Frankie's back, and him stepping in to diffuse the situation whenever she and Leonard got into it with one another, the first month of the new academic year went by rather uneventfully.

Frankie completed and passed her clinical rotation in the hospital's diagnostic and research laboratory with flying colours, just like she was doing with the rest of her classes. When she wasn't in class, in the hospital, or studying, she was spending time with her friends. Jim, who had a weird but amusing affinity for bad horror movies, often invited Frankie to join him on Friday nights. Then, on Saturday or Sunday, she usually hung out with Wade, Maggie, and Uhura somewhere for a group study session that rarely involved much studying.

A study hangout was exactly where Frankie was when one of the worst blowups between Frankie and Leonard began, which was unexpected considering the two had barely seen two seconds of each other in the past week.

"You're going to do just fine." Frankie rolled her eyes playfully as she assured Wade for the fifth time that he was going to do just fine on his engineering warp core exam the following week. "At this point, you're just stressing yourself out more. You know what you're doing."

"Easy for you to say," Wade grumbled. "The pass cutoff for second-year is, what, 70%? It's 75% in third-year."

"Oh, a whole five percent extra." Maggie, a fellow second-year, laughed.

Uhura, who had obviously had quite enough 'studying' for one day, turned off her PADD, which had been displaying her notes. "Five percent doesn't seem like a lot, but it is."

"Oh, boo-hoo, you two. You don't see Frankie complaining about having to keep up with classes _and_ working at the hospital, do you?" Maggie reasoned.

Frankie, who wasn't one to give herself credit where it wasn't due, scoffed. "It'll start complaining once I actually start working at the hospital," she said. "I technically don't have to do it since my clinical rotations give me the hours required, but I'm in desperate need of some extra cash if we're gonna keep studying in coffee shops where I'm unable to control my gnawing desire for caffeine."

The group let out a collective laugh and nodded in agreement. "Speaking of caffeine, I have to use the bathroom," Maggie announced rather unceremoniously as she stood up from her seat. "Don't have too much fun without me."

"We only have fun without you," Frankie called after her friend, which earned her a flip-off in return.

As soon as Maggie was out of earshot, Frankie and Uhura turned to Wade and stared him down. "When are you going to finally ask her out?" Uhura asked. "She's totally into you."

Wade chuckled nervously. "I don't know. Every time I think it's the right time, I worry about messing up our friendship and roommate situation and chicken out."

"Well, you're just gonna have to man up and do it," Frankie told him. "Because I can't stand the sexual tension any longer."

"There isn't any sexual tension!"

"Yeah, and pigs have wings." Uhura deadpanned. "Just ask her to Jim's Halloween party at the end of the month and make a move then."

Frankie cocked a brow. "Jim's throwing a Halloween party?"

Uhura nodded. "He does every year. As much as I hate him and hate to give him any credit, they are actually really fun."

Just then, as if on cue, the screen of Frankie's PADD lit up, indicating she had received a message. "Speak of the devil." Frankie saw the message was from Jim.

**Jim: _Leonard in a bad mood. Stay out of the room for the rest of the afternoon._**

Frankie sighed, annoyed. She had planned on heading back to the room after her hangout in order to figure out what days worked to fit a few hospital shifts into her schedule.

**Frankie: _What happened?_**

"Everything okay?" Uhura asked, noticing the way Frankie's eyebrows had knit together as she glared down at her PADD.

Frankie huffed. "Apparently Leonard's in a bad mood and Jim thinks it would be a good idea for me to stay away for as long as possible. I have stuff to do though."

"That's bullshit," Uhura said. "You shouldn't have to stay out of your own room just because your adult roommate is throwing a tantrum."

"I agree." Frankie gave a nod as her PADD lit up again.

**Jim: _Idk. Something about how he didn't get chosen for some program he applied for. He's ranting about the mug you left beside the sink now_**

**Frankie: _I couldn't wash it because we're out of dish soap. I was going to pick more up today_**

**Jim: _I told him that. I think it only made him angrier_**

**Frankie: _He is ridiculous_**

**Jim: _I know. Are you still coming back?_**

**Frankie: _I don't have much of a choice. I have things I need to get done . . ._**

**Jim: _Okay. I'll try to calm him down before you return_**

**Frankie: _Thanks_**

"What did I miss?" Maggie chirped when she got back from the bathroom.

Uhura gestured to Frankie. "Frankie's roommate sucks."

Maggie exhaled as she sat back down. "The doctor?"

"Yeah." Frankie turned off her PADD and tucked it away in her bag. "Well, looks like I've gotta go pick up some dish soap and hope Leonard doesn't pour it down my throat and suffocate me with it when I get home."

"Good luck." Wade gave a wave. "Text us if you survive."

"I will." Frankie bid her friends goodbye before heading out of the coffee shop and making her way toward the general store on campus that sold pretty much every staple appliance that someone could possibly need.

After picking up some dish soap and a few extra items that she was in need of, she prayed that she had given Jim enough time to calm the angry hulk that lived inside of Leonard and headed back to the room.

Much to her dismay, however, Frankie could hear the enraged rantings of her roommate before she even approached the door. Taking a moment to compose herself, she drew in a few deep breaths and reminded herself that nothing Leonard might say was personal. Then, she punched in the room code and opened the door.

Almost immediately, the shouting stopped and as Frankie stepped through the doorway, two pairs of eyes began staring her down. "Hey." Frankie tried to play it cool and held up the grocery bag in her left hand. "I picked up some stuff."

Jim's eyes flickered back and forth between Leonard and Frankie, waiting with bated breath to see what would happen. He had tried his hardest to alleviate Leonard's anger before Frankie got home, but he had been unsuccessful.

"You left a dirty mug on the counter beside the sink," Leonard said through gritted teeth.

"I know." Frankie didn't deny it. "We were out of dish soap. I just bought more. I'm going to wash it now."

The room was dead silent as Frankie pulled the soap out of the bag and walked over to the sink, where, like she said she would, she started washing the black Starfleet mug she had left.

"We wouldn't have been out if you have gone shopping on Thursday like you were supposed to."

Frankie was glad she had her back turned to Leonard because she was sure that her facial expression was betraying her attempt to remain in control of her emotions.

"I told Jim on Thursday that I had a paper to write and that I would go shopping on the weekend instead, as I just did."

Jim remained quiet, like a fly on the wall for the entire interaction. It was like watching two rabid dogs in close quarters, circling each other, ready to pounce.

"You didn't tell _me_." Leonard retorted.

Turning off the water, Frankie placed the now-clean mug into the drying rack. "I didn't tell you because you weren't here." Frankie faked a smile, fighting the urge to scream and shut herself away in her room; but Uhura was right, this was bullshit and she needed to stand her ground.

"I was working."

"Yes, you were, which is why I was unable to tell you."

"I have a very busy schedule."

"I know that. That's why, in an attempt to be a good roommate, I offered to do the shopping this week even though it was technically your week to do the shopping." Frankie glowered up at him, almost daring him to refute her. "So, I think it's rather unfair and truthfully, childish, that you're acting like this right now. It's one mug on the counter. I didn't take a shit on the couch."

Leonard scoffed. " _I'm_ childish? I'm not the one tip-toeing around here like a scared kid, too afraid to speak up for myself. Maybe you wouldn't be so insufferable if you actually had a backbone."

Jim, who sensed the oncoming shitstorm, slowly began to back away toward his room. Normally he would step in and try to diffuse the situation, but even he could tell that this argument was going to be well out of his wheelhouse.

Frankie's mouth dropped open. That was it. No more playing nice. If Leonard wanted backbone, he was going to get it.

"I don't know how to fucking please you, because no matter what I try to do—whether I try to make nice or stay out of your way altogether—I just can't win. So I'm done trying!" Frankie's voice got louder the more heated she got. "You act like you own this fucking place; like you're so special because you're a doctor with a busy schedule. Well, newsflash, asshole! You're not the only busy doctor to ever exist, and you won't be the last! You want an impossible schedule?! Try being me, trying to keep up with everything in addition to walking on eggshells around you because you have the demeanour of a pissed-off lion and the temper of a bull."

"Guys." Jim almost whispered, now standing in the threshold of his room. "Let's not fight, okay?"

"No, you know what, Jim. It's time for this to end." Leonard took a step toward Frankie, proving just how much taller than her he was. "I'm sick and tired of you and I'm going down to the damn admin building tomorrow to get you out of here myself."

The next words that came flying out of Frankie's mouth were a mistake and she knew it. Instantly, she regretted them, but there was nothing she could do to take them back; they were already out in the open.

"If this is how you treat every woman you come across, no wonder your ex-wife divorced your sorry ass!"

Leonard's mouth stretched into a tight line. "Fucking bitch," he seethed before storming out of the room altogether, leaving Frankie and Jim to bask in the suffocating tension.

Leaning back against the counter, Frankie's blood began to boil. Then, before she knew what she was doing, she grabbed the mug she had just washed and threw it to the ground, shattering it. "Fuck!" she yelled, voicing her own frustration.

Running her hands over her face, Frankie let out an exasperated groan. It was then she realized that Jim was still standing there, watching her.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I'll clean it up."

"It's okay." Jim walked over and grabbed the broom from the small linen closet. "I'll help."

Frankie's mouth curled into a small smile. "Thank you."

"We'll both be in shit when he comes back, so it's best that we leave as little of a mess as possible that might aggravate him more," Jim said, catching Frankie's confused look before elaborating. "He's gonna know I was the one who told you about the divorce."

Frankie let out a gasp. "Oh, Jim, I didn't even think about that! I'm so sorry. He just kept pushing and pushing and it just slipped out."

"Don't worry about it." Jim handed the broom to Frankie. "Let's just get this cleaned up."

"Yeah." Frankie started sweeping up the broken ceramic. "Shit . . . you know, this was my favourite mug. My mom gave it to me when I found out I had been accepted into Starfleet. She was so proud of me."

Jim picked up a ceramic shard of the black mug that showcased a portion of the golden Starfleet insignia. "I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize. I was the one who broke it in the first place." Frankie huffed. "I really just should have stayed out of the room."

Jim flashed a quick smirk. "Yeah, you probably should have."

Together, the two roommates clean up the kitchen, unpacked the items that Frankie had bought, and made sure the room was generally in good condition. Then, exhausted from the events that had just taken place, they bid each other an early goodnight and retired to their respective rooms.

Frankie tried her best to focus on creating a work schedule that suited her already packed school schedule, but she kept getting distracted by every little sound, thinking that Leonard had returned.

A part of her wanted to apologize for what she had blurted out because no matter how rude Leonard had been or how much he had antagonized her, she knew that what she said was not appropriate; she had no right to drag his personal life into their hatred for one another. On the other hand, however, Frankie hadn't forgotten what had happened the last time she had decided to apologize first, and the last thing she wanted was a repeat of that.

So instead, Frankie eventually decided that she wouldn't be the one to cave first this time; she couldn't. If she was really going to stand her ground, then this was the perfect start.

Just before 10 pm, Frankie heard the front door open, followed by a pair of heavy footsteps. For a second, she swore that the footsteps were approaching her door, but surely she was hearing things. There was no way Leonard was going to come in and talk to her, right?

Then there was a knock on her bedroom door.

Sitting up in bed, Frankie watched the door handle closely, waiting to see if Leonard would enter without her say so. He didn't, but he also didn't leave.

"Yeah?" Frankie called softly.

"It's me." The southern twang was clear as day, even through the door. "What happened was out of hand. I just wanted to say that I should not have taken my anger out on you. I apologize."

Frankie didn't respond right away due to the fact that she was at a loss for words. Had Leonard really just apologized first? What kind of an alternate reality had she stepped into?

Just as Frankie was going to speak, she heard the footsteps begin to retreat away from her room. Jumping out of bed, she pulled the door open, stopping Leonard in his tracks in the middle of the room. Slowly, he turned to look at her.

"Thank you for apologizing," Frankie told him. "I'm sorry too."

Leonard gave a curt nod and turned to head back to his room, but Frankie spoke again before he could.

"Jim told me that you got some bad news today."

Leonard scoffed. "Clearly that's not the only thing Jim has told you about me."

Frankie winced. She deserved that. "It's not his fault, really. He was just trying to help me understand you a little better. I take full responsibility."

Leonard just huffed.

Sensing that she had pushed Leonard past his conversational limits, Frankie moved to close her bedroom door. Leonard surprised her by initiating a further discussion about the topic at hand, however.

"I had applied to start a mentorship program in the surgery department," he said. "Working nights in the emergency room is killing me. I wanted a change. I didn't get it."

Frankie leaned against her doorway and crossed her arms, choosing her response wisely. "I'm sorry. If someone of your talent didn't get in, the competition must have been stiff."

"It was. It was always a long-shot but I'm still pissed." He sighed before quirking an eyebrow. "Someone of my talent?"

"I've seen your suturing skills. Plus, you study non-stop, so you better be good." She cracked a smile. "I'd be worried otherwise."

"I'm sure you're a good doctor as well."

Frankie shrugged lazily. "I'd like to think so."

When the conversation reached a natural lull, Leonard nodded his head toward his room. "Well, I'm gonna head to bed."

"Yeah, me too." Frankie pushed off from the doorframe. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight." He reciprocated. "Oh, and I'm not going to go to the admin building tomorrow. Just so you know."

The corner of Frankie's mouth twitched slightly. "Thanks."

With that, Frankie closed her bedroom door again. Unsure about how to feel about that unusually good-natured interaction, she crawled back into bed and stared up at the ceiling, wondering if it was a one-time thing or a beginning of a new chapter. 


	7. Chapter 7

"Welcome to the first day of your general medicine rotation." The program director, Doctor Skinner, stood at the front of the small gathering of second-year medical cadets. "Since this isn't your first rotation, I won't waste your time by going over the long introductory speech you most likely received from whatever your first rotation was. So, in an effort to get you guys working as soon as possible, I'll simply put your names down under your assigned physician on the whiteboard behind me and send you on your way."

Doctor Skinner then turned to the whiteboard and began writing down cadet names under their assigned mentor/attending physician. Since all Starfleet medical cadets had already graduated from an accredited medical school (usually on Earth), they were all already doctors. Therefore, the cadets didn't need supervision like an intern or resident in a normal hospital usually would, they more or less simply needed direction in applying the new skills they had learned in the academy.

Taking the last sip of the coffee she picked up on the way into the hospital that morning, Frankie tossed the disposable cup into the recycling bin she was standing beside and watched lazily as Doctor Skinner wrote down name after name.

She had not failed to notice that Doctor McCoy was one of the many physicians listed on the whiteboard, but since there were seven other physicians she could possibly be paired with, Frankie figured her odds were pretty decent.

And, as it turned out, the odds were indeed in Frankie's favour because no sooner had she finished her coffee than Doctor Skinner had written her name down underneath Doctor Kathleen Hearst. Frankie let out a relieved sigh. Not only was Doctor Hearts not Doctor McCoy, but she was also an incredibly talented doctor and one of the highest-ranking female physicians at the entire academy.

"Um, excuse me?" Frankie felt a light tap on her shoulder. Turning around, she was faced with a very nervous looking young man; one of her fellow cadets.

"Yes?" Frankie asked.

"Is it true that you know Doctor McCoy?" he whispered. "Because I got assigned to him and I've heard that he's a real hardass. I was hoping maybe you could give me some pointers. I don't want him to hate me on the first day."

Frankie smiled comfortingly. "I'm afraid there is nothing I can tell you that will make it better. He will absolutely hate you on the first day. Just try not to take it personally, okay?"

The cadet swallowed hard. "O-okay. Thanks . . . I guess."

With that, Frankie turned and headed out of the room to find Doctor Hearst. Thankfully, the woman was standing not too far away from the whiteboard at one of the nursing stations, along with the other physicians. Frankie acknowledged Leonard with a curt nod before continuing on her way. Leonard did the same.

"Doctor Hearst." Frankie greeted the female doctor, who she was just now realizing was absolutely stunning. With wavy blonde hair and a confident yet welcoming expression on her face, Frankie was already positive that she had lucked out with her assignment. "I'm Frankie Warren. I was assigned to your service today."

Kathleen Hearst smiled wide. "Oh, excellent. I always tell them to give me a female cadet and you know what, they never do. Not that I have anything against men, of course—I rather enjoy their company when the mood is right—but there is a time and place, don't you agree?"

Frankie couldn't help but chuckle. Despite the fact that this was only her second clinical placement, she had a good feeling that it was going to be her favourite. "I absolutely do," Frankie agreed.

"Splendid." Kathleen nodded before gesturing down the hallway to her left. "Shall we?"

Leading Frankie down a few hallways, Kathleen explained the patients in their care for that day as they walked. Thankfully, the workload wasn't too terribly heavy, with three patients overall; one Orion woman who was currently recovering from an injury to her abdomen, a human man receiving tests to find out what was ailing him, and a human woman who had just returned from a mission and had come down with what looked like a particularly nasty case of influenza.

Frankie was then let somewhat loose in order to visit the patients for herself and perform the daily physical and mental assessments.

Frankie was pleased to see that the Orion woman was continuing on a steady path of recovery and that her wound was healing well. The human man had gotten a few lab results back, indicating that he had some form of bacterial pneumonia, and when compared to the vital signs from the day previous, was getting worse. The human woman with influenza seemed to be doing about the same as she had been the day before, still unable to keep much solid food or liquid down and requiring IV fluids to stay hydrated.

All in all, Frankie had been handed three pretty easy patients to deal with considering she had been expecting a whole host of rare space diseases that she had never worked with before. Because of this, Kathleen was incredibly pleased with her work. Frankie wasn't surprised, however, because this type of work had been exactly what she had been doing when she worked in a normal civilian hospital in New York for her internship and residency.

During her lunch break, Frankie had ventured down to the cafeteria to pick up one of the overpriced salads that she enjoyed so much. As she stepped away from the counter with her food in hand, she noticed the male cadet from that morning sitting at a table by himself, eyes bulging as he frantically typed away on his PADD; his lunch remained untouched.

It wasn't hard for Frankie to guess that the poor cadet was already being worked into the ground by Leonard.

Making her way over, Frankie sat down across from the man and flashed a warm smile. "How's it going?" she inquired.

"Doctor McCoy is a sadist!" he cried out before looking over his shoulder, paranoid that Leonard had been standing somewhere nearby and had heard him. "I've worked with some demanding attendings before but this is . . . I'm losing my mind and it's only the first day."

"He can definitely be a little much." Frankie nodded. "If you don't mind my asking, can I see what he gave you to work on?"

Almost too enthusiastically, the man pushed his PADD across the table. "Please, be my guest." He let out a sigh of relief. "I'm Torin Cortez, by the way."

"Frankie Warren," Frankie muttered as she glanced at the many tabs open on Torin's PADD, most of them being patient notes for Leonard's patients. "Wow, lots of paperwork. Does he have you doing anything hands-on?"

"Oh, yes," Torin answered. "Dare I say he has me doing everything."

Frankie thought for a minute as she observed the lab orders that Leonard had requested. "Well, from what little I know of Doctor McCoy, I would say the best thing to do is to set up a priority system for yourself," she said. "If I were you—and this is just me—I would get all on the hands-on stuff done first and then worry about the notes last. Or maybe just simply ask him what he deems most important?"

Torin scoffed as he took his PADD back. "Yeah, I'd rather scratch my tongue off with a cheese grater than ask him anything. I think I'll stick with your method."

"I hope it works," Frankie said. "Sorry I couldn't help more."

"Thanks," Torin exhaled.

From there, Frankie got up and took her lunch back up to her patient floor with her, where she ate at a leisurely pace and filled in her own notes. When she was done half an hour later, she did another round of checks on her patients, who were all doing about the same as when she had last seen them.

By then, the lab had called saying that they had more results for the man with pneumonia ready for pickup. Noticing that the nurses on the floor already had their hands full, Frankie decided to swing by the lab and pick up the results for herself. The sooner she got the lab results, the sooner she would actually have something to do.

"I'm here to pick up the lab results for my pneumonia patient," Frankie told the lab tech, who was another cadet on clinical rotation, as she approached the counter. "The attending physician is Kathleen Hearst."

"Ah, yes." The lab tech grabbed a sheet of paper from behind the counter and handed it over. "Here you are."

Frankie nodded and turned to leave. "Thanks."

"Oh, before you go." The lab tech stopped her. "You haven't seen Doctor McCoy around, have you?"

Frankie shook her head. "No. Why?"

"His cadet was supposed to have picked up these results over an hour ago."

"Oh, Torin." Frankie sighed. "Yeah, Doctor McCoy's cadet seems to be having a bit of a rough day today. I can take them if that's okay."

The lab tech grinned and held out another slip of paper. "If you could, that would be great. We're starting to get backed up and I'd hate for it to get lost and need to be redone."

"For sure." Frankie took the results.

With both her patient's and Leonard's patient's results in hand, Frankie made a detour on the way back from the laboratory to hopefully find Leonard hanging around the patient room noted on the lab results.

Leonard wasn't in the patient's room, however, but it didn't take Frankie long to find him sitting in one of the many multiuse offices, the lights off and the door closed almost all the way.

"Knock knock," Frankie said as she rapped her knuckles against the door. "Are you hiding from your cadet?"

Leonard's eyes slowly trailed up from his PADD. "If I said yes, would you tell him?"

"Oh, no, not a word." Frankie chuckled as she placed the lab results onto his desk. "I believe these are yours."

Grabbing the slip of paper, Leonard scanned it quickly. "Ah, the lab results I've been waiting for for the past hour." He then eyed Frankie. "Why are you bringing me this? You're not on my service."

"No, I'm not. And thank goodness for that." Frankie joked lightly, unsure how far the boundary was with Leonard, before shrugging innocently. "I was at the lab anyway. Figured I'd give poor Torin a little help."

Leonard scoffed. "Yeah, well, he certainly needs it."

"You should cut him some slack," Frankie suggested. "I think he's been actively having a heart attack the entire day."

"There's no slack when patients are dying," Leonard stated matter-of-factly. "Maybe he's just not cut out for this. You seem to be keeping up just fine."

"Well, not everyone can be me." Frankie flashed a cocky smirk. "Anyway, I'll leave you to your work or whatever it is you're doing in this creepily dark office."

Leonard nodded. "Thanks for the labs."

"No problem."

In an attempt to be nice, Frankie ended up helping Torin out a few more times over the course of the following week. It was nothing too drastic, but if she happened to be heading to the lab she would take his samples or pick up his results, or if he was swamped with patient notes—which needed to be done by 7 pm every day—she would round on his patients before heading home for the day.

In the grand scheme of things, Frankie didn't think it was that much of a big deal, but when she and Torin had been asked to be present for a meeting at 11 am on Monday the following week, she suddenly became extremely nervous about everything she had done. Had she accidentally broken some rule she didn't know about? Was there some sort of regulation against clinical plagiarism? Was it frowned upon to assist fellow cadets?

From the second Frankie had arrived at the hospital that morning to the moment she found herself standing outside Kathleen's office door, she had been dreading the meeting. With a racing heart and sweating palms, she mustered any remaining courage that might be hiding deep down within herself and knocked at the door.

"Come in," Kathleen called softly.

When Frankie opened the door, she was surprised to see that everyone had already arrived. Kathleen was sitting at her desk, Torin was sitting opposite her, and Leonard was standing in the corner with his arms crossed.

"Oh, am I late?" Frankie asked as she closed the door behind herself.

"No, no, you're right on time," Kathleen assured her.

"Torin just got here early," Leonard said, disappointment evident in his tone. "Which is odd because he definitely had time to complete the notes that were due yesterday in the ten minutes he's just been sitting here."

Torin hung his head. "Sorry, sir."

"But that's not what we're here to discuss today." Kathleen gestured for Frankie to take the free seat beside Torin and she did. "Well, not _exactly_. Doctor McCoy has brought something to my attention that I feel should be addressed."

Frankie tried to swallow the lump in her throat in case she was asked to speak, but it just wouldn't go away. Unable to look at Kathleen—fearful that she had disappointed her mentor—she instead observed Leonard. Try as she might to figure out where she stood with him, she was still unsure. Ever since the blowup about the mug, they had been fairly civil with one another, but friendly was probably too much of a stretch.

"We assume you two know why you are here." Kathleen continued. "Torin, you've been having some trouble keeping up with the workload involved with general medicine and Frankie has been helping you make ends meet. Is this correct?"

Both Frankie and Torin nodded. "Yes," they answered in unison.

"Torin, is there anything you would like to say to explain what's been going on?" Kathleen took full direction of the conversation and Leonard seemed more than happy to let her do it. "Because I've reviewed your file and you have excellent marks and references. You're not stupid, which is evident based purely on the fact that you were accepted into this program. I'm interested to find out why you might be struggling."

Torin drew in a deep breath. "I'm sorry . . . I've never had something like this happen before. I just have a lot on my plate emotionally right now. I just found out that my girlfriend back home is pregnant and I don't know what I'm going to do."

Frankie's eyes grew wide, and she wasn't the only one. Whatever anyone had been expecting, it certainly wasn't that.

"Well then . . ." Leonard trailed off.

Kathleen took a moment to compose herself. "Well, Cadet Cortez, we aren't oblivious to the fact that people have personal lives outside of Starfleet. Doctor McCoy and I have met with the head of your program and we came to the decision that it would be unfortunate to fail you from the program during your second clinical rotation; you've barely been able to prove yourself yet. In addition, we recognize that working in the Starfleet hospital can be an adjustment for even the most experienced physicians. So the solution we came up with, if you are both amenable to this, is that I will take Mr. Cortez onto my service and Doctor McCoy will take Miss Warren onto his."

Frankie wasn't sure what to say. Torin, on the other hand, was over the moon. "Oh, my goodness, thank you so much! I promise you won't regret giving me another chance."

"We better not," Leonard grumbled.

"Miss Warren," Kathleen turned to Frankie. "What are your feelings about this arrangement? Since this affects you, we feel it only proper to move forward with your go-ahead."

Frankie just nodded before realizing that it might be best to speak. "Y-yes, that's fine. If it helps out Torin, I'm fine with it."

In reality, Frankie wasn't exactly sure how 'fine' with it she really was. She and Leonard had just gotten to a place where they weren't at each other's throats 24/7 and she wasn't sure that working so closely together would be beneficial to that.

"We appreciate your willingness to be so flexible," Kathleen said. "Because I take on a larger administration role in this hospital than Doctor McCoy, I naturally have a lighter patient workload. This will give Torin a chance to sort out his personal affairs while remaining in the program, hopefully."

"That makes sense." Frankie wiped her sweaty palms across her pants as she pictured carrying the heavy weight of Leonard's workload upon her shoulders; would she be given the same considerations that he had if she began to fail as well?

"Splendid." Kathleen clapped her hands together happily, clearly pleased to have come to a group agreement so easily. "You will both continue with your respective services today and then swap tomorrow morning when you arrive. If neither of you has any questions, you are free to go."

At the same time, Frankie and Torin stood from their chairs and exited the office. "I really owe you one!" Torin smiled wide at Frankie before rushing off to finish the last patient notes for Leonard that he would ever have to do.

"Yeah . . ." Frankie watched him go, his mood dramatically different than her own.

As Frankie started down the hall to return to the patients she would apparently only have for the rest of that day, she heard the office door open and close and a pair of heavy footsteps coming up behind her.

"Cadet Warren." Leonard stopped her and she turned to face him. "I just want you to know that this wasn't my intended outcome when I approached Doctor Hearst about what had been happening."

Frankie let her shoulders slump. "I was just doing him little favours here and there. It wasn't a big deal."

"Cadet Cortez was drowning in the workload and you were the only thing keeping him afloat," Leonard said. "I may have my nose in books most of the day, but I'm not blind."

Frankie scoffed. "You didn't seem very concerned if he sank or swam last week."

"Well, unfortunately, it looks bad for me if my cadet fails his clinical rotation."

"Oh, I see." Realization washed over Frankie. "So this about saving your own ass."

Leonard furrowed his brows. "I sincerely can't tell if you're mad or not."

"I'm not mad," Frankie said. "I'm just not so sure that us working together is such a good idea considering, for a long time, we could barely be in the same room without a full-on screaming match breaking out."

"This isn't an ideal situation for me either, but when the program director suggested it, I couldn't exactly say no. Just think of it like this: if you do your job properly, you'll hardly ever see me."

Frankie forced a clearly fake smile. "That's comforting."

"It's only for three weeks."

"Well, considering I already agreed to it, I don't have much of a choice." Frankie extended her hand for a handshake. "Truce?"

Leonard narrowed his eyes at the woman. "Truce?"

"Yeah, you know . . ." Frankie started. "I know that you kind of hate me, and if I'm being honest, you aren't my favourite person-"

"Saying stuff like that isn't exactly a great way to start out a professional relationship with the person who decides if you pass or fail this rotation."

Frankie rolled her eyes. " _As I was saying_ , even though we aren't best friends or anything, I think it's reasonable that we call a truce in the hospital; meaning that no drama that happens in the room or our personal lives is allowed to affect this . . . arrangement."

Reluctantly, Leonard pulled his hand from his pocket and shook Frankie's hand. Frankie became keenly aware at that moment how much larger his hands were than her's.

"Truce," he agreed. "But for what it's worth, I don't hate you."

Frankie chuckled. "I appreciate the gesture, Doctor McCoy, but your lips purse ever-so-slightly when you lie." With that, Frankie turned on her heel and started back down the hall. "See you tomorrow morning," she called over her shoulder. "Or, actually, I'll see you back at the room. Either way, see you later."

Once she was around the corner, the forced cheerful demeanour that Frankie had been displaying dropped away and she cursed under her breath. So much for lucking out with her assignment. 


	8. Chapter 8

Walking in through the front doors of the hospital that morning, Frankie was unsure how to feel about her first day working with Leonard. The two hadn't seen much of each other at the room the night before, and since Leonard left earlier than Frankie, she hadn't seen him that day at all yet.

The only thing that kept Frankie walking toward the elevator was the recollection that Leonard had told her she seemed to be keeping up just fine, which was a lacklustre complement in most regards, but in Leonard's wheelhouse, it was pretty impressive.

As soon as Frankie had signed in for the day and grabbed one of the hospital's PADDs, she logged onto her account and found that Leonard had already sent her a laundry list of things for her to accomplish that day.

Instead of wasting any time dreading the rather overwhelming list of tasks, Frankie got right to work and did the rounds on her new patients to get to know them and introduce herself. While Kathleen had only three rather simple patients in her care, Leonard had five, four of which were suffering from rather complex diseases. Frankie chose to look at this as an exciting opportunity to finally get to work with the rare diseases she had been looking forward to getting more hands-on experience with.

Since the lab usually took a couple of hours to process results, Frankie chose to collect the required samples from her patients first and send those off as soon as possible. After requesting the nurse collect a blood sample from one patient, Frankie performed a punch biopsy on another and got it ready for the lab.

The head nurse working with Leonard's patient was, thankfully, more than happy to send the samples down to the lab herself in addition to filling Frankie in on all the things that Leonard and Torin had been working with the patients on during the previous week.

With an important part of her list now checked off, Frankie moved on to a dressing change on a woman who had sustained dilithium burns while working on a starship warp core.

"Hello, just me again." Frankie gave a courtesy knock on the patient's door as she entered the room. "I'm here to do your dressing changes. Is this a good time?"

The woman, who had barely spoken when Frankie had first made her rounds earlier, nodded. "As good a time as any, I suppose."

"Perfect." Frankie began to set up her dressing kit. "And just to double-check, the nurse did give you your requested analgesic for the pain thirty minutes ago, yes?"

The woman nodded once more. "Yes, she did. I'm all drugged up."

"Good." Frankie chuckled. "And while I'm doing this, Mrs . . ."

"Parkins," the woman said. "But please, just call me Linda."

Frankie smiled. "Linda. If at any time during the dressing change I'm doing something that your previous doctors have done differently, just let me know. I did review the notes beforehand, but sometimes little details get left out."

Linda rested her head back on the pillows on her bed, which was currently at a 45-degree angle. "Okay, thank you."

"Of course," Frankie assured as she prepped her sterile field. "And I completely apologize for forgetting your name. I'm still getting used to all of my new patients."

Linda smirked faintly. "Don't worry about it, kid. The last cadet couldn't remember my name for the first three days. But besides that, I'm used to a new face every couple of weeks. Doctor McCoy goes through cadets like I go through bandages."

Frankie wasn't sure whether it was appropriate to laugh or not, so instead, she just smiled.

"You can laugh." Linda sensed her slight discomfort. "It's a joke."

Frankie let out a soft chuckle.

While Frankie worked on removing and replacing the bandages on Linda's burnt skin, she observed the woman carefully, checking for any non-verbal signs of pain. Linda wasn't necessarily an _older_ woman, but she was certainly older than Frankie and probably a good ten years older than Leonard. Every once in awhile she would fill Frankie in on little details on how the accident had happened, and despite the fact that she had made a simple mistake that had caused her injuries, it was clear that she had been working on warp cores for most of her career.

When Frankie had finally finished and began cleaning up her supplies, Linda sat up in her bed a little and eyed her. "Don't take offence to this, but how long do you think you'll be able to keep up with Doctor McCoy's draining demands?" Linda asked. "I just want to know if I should bother learning your name or not."

Frankie thought for a moment. "I'd like to say that I'll be with you for the rest of the month, but I honestly can't say. It all depends on if Doctor McCoy is pleased with my work, I suppose."

Linda nodded. "That last boy, whatever his name was, was always running around like a chicken with his head cut off."

"Yeah, Torin and I got swapped," Frankie said. "Guess I'm up next on the cutting block."

"Good luck."

With a thankful nod, Frankie excused herself and left Linda to rest. By then, she had gotten word back that her lab results were ready and swung by to pick those up quickly before she went for a lunch break that she was honestly surprised she even had time for. Thus far, Torin had made Leonard's service seem much harder than it really was.

Stopping by the office that Leonard had been using as his own, Frankie peeked her head inside to find him sitting at the desk, eyes glued to his PADD like usual.

"Lab results," Frankie announced herself as she stepped into the office and placed the sheet of paper onto the desk.

Leonard seemed almost surprised. "Oh, I wasn't expecting these for another few hours or so."

"I did them first thing since I know the lab gets a mid-morning rush," Frankie said.

Leonard picked up the results and scanned them. "Well, good. You're already doing better than Cortez."

"Glad to hear it." Frankie backed toward the doorway. "I was just about to grab a slightly early lunch since I have time now. Do you, ugh . . . want me to grab you anything?"

Leonard's eyes trailed up from the lab results. "You're offering to pick me up something from the cafeteria?"

Frankie suddenly felt extremely foolish for the offer. "Well, in the spirit of the truce and everything. Plus, I'm going to be down there anyway."

"Oh, okay, well . . . a black coffee is fine."

Frankie smirked. "Of course you drink black coffee."

"What does that mean?"

"Oh, nothing."

"Before you leave," Leonard stopped her, "remember that Mrs. Parkins needs her bandages changed before-"

"I already changed her bandages." Frankie slightly gloated, happy with herself that she seemed to be ahead of schedule.

Leonard paused. "Oh, good. And the patient notes are due before-"

"I'm going to work on them while I eat lunch." Frankie couldn't help the grin on her face. "Anything else?"

Leonard narrowed his eyes quizically. "No, nothing else."

With that, Frankie ran down to the cafeteria on the main floor and managed to beat the usual noon rush. Picking up a salad for herself and a black coffee for Leonard, she passed Torin, who was sitting at one of the tables with one of the other cadets, looking drastically less stressed.

Returning not ten minutes later, Frankie didn't even bother to knock on the office door when she entered. "One black coffee, void of all flavour and happiness." Frankie placed the cup down on Leonard's desk.

"Thank you." Leonard seemed slightly uncomfortable with the thankful sentiment as he said it. "Before I forget, Jim asked me to ask you if you will be attending his Halloween party this year."

Frankie did a double-take. Were she and Leonard really talking about parties together?

"I didn't know I was invited," she answered.

"Well, it would be sort of rude not to considering your bedroom door will open into said party," Leonard reasoned.

Frankie tossed the idea around in her head for a little bit. "I'm not sure. Do you usually attend Jim's parties?"

Leonard quirked a brow. "Are you gauging your response off of whether I will be there or not?"

"No." Frankie shook her head. "Just curious, is all."

"Well, if you must know, I usually get roped into attending if I'm not working."

Frankie thought some more. "Do you think I could invite some of my friends?"

"Oh, dear God, I didn't think this would turn into twenty-questions." Leonard groaned. "I don't know. You'll have to ask Jim."

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry." Frankie held her hands up in surrender. "I'll talk to him myself."

Leonard pressed his fingers to his temples. "Jim usually lets me invite people if I want to and he's never one to say no to extra bodies attending his parties, so I'd assume the answer to your question is yes."

Frankie placed a hand on her hip. "You invite people to his parties?"

Leonard looked slightly offended. "If I want to, yes."

"Who would you invite?"

"Friends."

"What friends?"

"Okay, time for you to leave." Leonard gestured to the doorway. "Goodbye."

Frankie cackled. "It was a perfectly reasonable question. From what I can tell, Jim is your only friend."

"Goodbye."

Frankie stopped in the doorway briefly. "Doctor McCoy?"

Leonard exhaled dramatically before looking up at her again. "Yes?"

"I'm sorry that I insinuated you didn't have friends. I'm sure you have tons of friends. Like, so many that we couldn't even fit them all inside an entire football field."

"Out before I add so much work to your load that you won't step foot outside of this hospital for another week!"

"I'm sure I could get it all done really quickly if I got all your friends to help me."

"Frankie . . ." Leonard tried to come across as thoroughly displeased but even he couldn't hide the slight amusement he was experiencing. "Cadet Warren." He corrected himself. "Don't you have a salad to eat and some patient notes to write?"

Frankie, who had finally decided to give up the gag, nodded. "That I do. Enjoy your coffee . . . _Leonard_."

For the rest of the day, Frankie had no trouble staying on top of her workload and actually managed to finish a little early, which was just as much a surprise to herself as it was to Leonard when she informed him.

After rounding one final time on all five of her patients, Frankie was just about to log out of the hospital PADD and return it to the charging dock when she noticed an email stating that she was now eligible to sign up for hospital shifts to make some extra cash if she wanted to.

Setting a mental reminder to look into extra shifts more once she returned to her room, Frankie put the PADD back and headed for the elevator. Overall, she felt pretty good about her first day working on Leonard's service. In fact, she found that she could actually get used to it; especially since it didn't seem to be as awkward as she had originally imagined it.

Maybe, just maybe, Leonard _hadn't_ been lying when he had said he didn't hate Frankie. Or maybe he was just really good at hiding it in a professional setting. 


	9. Chapter 9

When a series of loud, erratic knocks sounded on Frankie's door on Saturday morning, she jolted awake assuming the worst. Frantically glancing around her room, she searched for any evidence that the room was on fire.

"Frankie!" Jim's voice called through the thin door, making it sound like he was inside the bedroom. "You awake?"

Groaning, Frankie turned over in bed and tried to make out the time on her clock with her bleary eyes. It was 8:30 am, which wasn't really early, but also not the time Frankie usually woke up on weekends (unless she had somewhere to be).

"No," Frankie shouted back as she let her head fall back onto the pillow. "I'm dead. Come back later."

"I was wondering if you wanted to come get breakfast with me."

Frankie was silent as she let the offer whirl around her half-asleep mind. "Are you asking if I want to hang out?"

Without warning, Jim opened Frankie's door and stepped inside her room.

"Please, make yourself at home." Frankie sat up, accepting that she was awake now whether she liked it or not.

"Your room is weirdly clean," Jim observed as he turned slowly to view the entire bedroom.

Frankie furrowed her eyebrows and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. "I'm sorry to disappoint. Were you expecting a pigsty?"

"No, I just assumed you couldn't possibly have time to keep it clean with all the classwork and clinical shifts you have."

"The only time I'm in here is when I'm studying or sleeping. I don't hang out here enough to make it dirty."

Jim nodded. "Makes sense."

"Anyway," Frankie grabbed a hoodie that was sitting at the end of her bed and pulled it over her tank top, "is there something I can help you with or did you just barge in here to look at my room?"

"I asked if you wanted to get breakfast," Jim reminded her. "I was also hoping you might possibly want to be an awesome friend and help me pick up some supplies for the Halloween party."

Frankie pondered her options. "As much as I hate shopping for the sake of shopping, a toasted bacon and cheese bagel does sound pretty good right about now."

"I'll pay," Jim added, hoping the extra incentive would convince Frankie.

"You must really want my help."

Jim shrugged. "If I'm being honest, there's this girl I've invited to the party who I've been trying to impress for quite a while now. I may or may not have told her I'm going all-out with the decorations. Only problem . . . I'm god-awful at decorating."

"What makes you think I'm good at that stuff?" Frankie asked, gesturing around her bare-bones bedroom that barely had anything set up that wasn't purely for practical use.

"Well, I don't know." Jim scratched the back of his neck. "I kind of assumed that women just had a knack for that sort of thing but now that I'm saying it out loud I'm realizing that it sounds kind of sexist."

"At least you're self-aware," Frankie said as she climbed out of bed. "Okay, I'll come. But no promises that my sub-par decoration taste will get you laid."

"I'll take what I can get." Jim started to leave the bedroom. "Oh, and the bathroom's all yours. I've already showered and Bones is already gone."

With an acknowledging nod, Frankie shut the door after Jim so that she could have some privacy to get dressed. Within fifteen minutes, Frankie had thrown on some casual clothes, tied her hair up into a ponytail, and grabbed her wallet.

Jim, who had probably been up and dressed for hours due to the fact that he was a chronic early-riser, no matter how late he went to bed, was sitting on the couch waiting for her.

"Ready?" he asked when he heard her emerge from her room.

Frankie gave a tired nod and started for the door. "I'm thinking breakfast first," she said as her stomach let out an audible gurgle. "I'm starving."

"Breakfast first it is," Jim agreed.

After the duo made their way down to the campus café, which was the only place on campus where you could get decently-priced breakfast food all day long, they ordered their food and coffee and began the short walk to the strip of grocery and general stores right across the street from the academy.

"So, I assume Bones talked to you about the party like I asked him to?" Jim inquired as the two walked side-by-side, coffees in one hand and bagels in the other.

Frankie took a bite of her bacon and melted cheese bagel and hummed in response. "Yes, he did. Extremely begrudgingly, might I add, but he did."

"And you're gonna come, right?"

"Yeah, as long as I don't have anything else planned. Can I invite some of my friends or is the guest list already long enough?"

Jim shook his head. "No, the more the merrier. Invite whoever you want. Last year the party didn't get shut down until 3 am. I'm trying to break that record this year."

Frankie laughed. "I don't think that's supposed to be the goal of a party."

Jim scoffed. "You obviously haven't been attending the right parties."

Having finished their breakfast just as they approached the first of many stores they were planning on visiting that day, Frankie and Jim tossed their garbage into the trashcan before entering through the sliding front doors.

The first store they stopped at was a grocery store where they loaded up on the staple snack foods like chips, chicken wings, popcorn, and of course, Halloween candy. Jim decided that he would pick up drinks—both alcoholic and otherwise—the day of the party, so they didn't have to worry about that just yet.

The second store was a general store that had set up an entire section in one of the back corners for Halloween decorations and paraphernalia. Jim definitely spent too much money there, but with the goal to shock and impress that year, he threw everything that Frankie suggested into the basket without even blinking an eye.

Finally, even though the two were becoming a little shopped-out by that point, Frankie and Jim stopped by the pop-up store that was dedicated to anything and everything Halloween because, well, they just _had_ to. By then, they were mostly window shopping, but Jim did pick up a few additional items just for the hell of it.

"It's a wonder these costumes are so expensive considering they barely cover anything." Frankie pulled a 'sexy nurse' costume off the rack and held it up. "What do you think? New work uniform?"

"Don't degrade yourself like that." Jim shook his head before smirking. "You're a doctor, not a nurse."

Frankie let out a laugh. "True. I worked too hard for that PhD."

"Halloween is all about dressing up as something completely different from what you are in your actual life." Jim sifted through a few more of the costumes, all of which were a little too revealing in order to cater to the academy full of young adults right across the street. "Here we go." He pulled out a Playboy Bunny costume.

"Oh, absolutely not." Frankie shook her head. "I have to remember that there are people I work with who are going to see me in whatever costume I decide on."

Jim furrowed his brows. "Like who?"

"Well, Leonard, for one."

Jim flapped his hand at Frankie, dismissing her concerns. "Don't worry about him. He always tries to get a shift at the hospital on Halloween night anyway, and on the rare occasion that he does show up, he's usually cloistered in his room, ignoring everything and everyone."

"I'm assuming he doesn't dress up," Frankie guessed.

"Of course, he doesn't. He never participates." Jim sighed. "Although, there was New Year's Eve during our first year where the girl he was dating at the time made him wear one of those plastic party hats. I think that's as good as it'll ever get when it comes to him."

Frankie snorted at the thought of Leonard standing in the corner of a packed room, a scowl on his face and a cheap plastic party hat perched upon his head. "I didn't know he dated," Frankie said. "After his divorce, that is. But I suppose I don't know much about him at all."

"You and me both," Jim told her. "I find out new stuff about him all the time. But, yeah, he dates casually sometimes. It never lasts very long though. The last girl was Heather . . . or was it Hannah? Either way, he saw her for about a month before ending things."

"I know a thing or two about short-term relationships." Frankie briefly recalled her short list of ex-boyfriends.

Jim smiled. "Hey, me too! Finally, something all three of us have in common."

"Call the press," Frankie joked. "You think maybe it's a Starfleet thing? Maybe the whole prospect of 'going out to space for months at a time' is a little too taxing on relationships."

"You might be on to something there." Jim sauntered down to the end of the aisle and pulled another costume. "Catwoman." He showed off the skin-tight black latex suit. "Not too revealing."

Frankie shook her head as she took the costume from Jim and put it back. "Our friendship needs to progress a lot farther before I actively seek your opinion on what sexy Halloween costume I should buy. We're just here for party materials."

"Fine." Jim pouted, sticking out his bottom lip. "But you better not show up to my party in something lame. There's only room for one slacker at my parties and, sorry, but Leonard already fills that position."

Finally deciding to call it a day, Frankie and Jim joined the line for the cash registers and waited for their turn. Once they had paid and had their many shopping bags in hand, they returned to their room on campus and dumped the loot onto the dining table.

"I think we may have gone a little overboard," Frankie commented.

"Nah, go big or go home." Jim started putting the food items away in the kitchen. "Thanks for your help, Frankie. I think you have better taste in Halloween decorations than you think."

Frankie gestured to the table full of supplies. "There is no taste here, Jim. We damn near bought one of everything."

"Same difference." Jim shrugged. "I can finish up here and put everything away if you have stuff to work on."

Remembering that she had planned on creating a study guide for one of her alien anatomy classes, Frankie turned and started for her room. "Okay. Thanks again for breakfast."

"Thanks for coming."

For the next couple of hours, Frankie sat at the desk in her room and worked on her anatomy study guide. By the time she had combed through her notes two or three times and made sure she had picked out all of the important information, she was ready for a shower, some dinner, and bed.

Grabbing a pair of sweatpants and a baggy shirt to change into after her shower, Frankie headed into the bathroom which was, thankfully, unoccupied. With a quick scrub of her body and hair, Frankie was out again in about ten minutes, feeling a little more refreshed but still pretty exhausted.

With her wet hair pulled into a ponytail, she shuffled into the kitchen to get some food from the replicator because even the act of microwaving something seemed like too much work. As she approached the dining table, however, she spotted something that stopped her in her tracks.

Sitting in the middle of the table was an exact replica of the black Starfleet mug that Frankie had shattered out of anger. Next to the mug was a handwritten note that read:

**_Thought you might like a replacement._ **

Picking up the mug, Frankie felt a child-like happiness spread inside of her. Then, she was confused. How had Jim managed to buy the mug without her noticing when they were with each other the whole time? Frankie hadn't thought him to be that sneaky, but maybe he had used one of his many intrusive questions as a distraction.

No matter how the mug had been purchased and placed onto the table with her remaining oblivious, Frankie suddenly felt in the mood for a steaming cup of tea before bed.

Maybe she had initially misjudged Jim. Maybe he was a better friend than she had given him credit for. 


	10. Chapter 10

Fiddling with the sterile instruments on the table in front of her, Frankie glanced back over her shoulder at the clock on the wall. She had an hour left of her clinical shift and then a few hours to get home, relax a little, and eat something before her very first night shift in the ER began. While she was excited about her ER shift, she was also wishing she had slept a little better the night before.

"My company isn't that bad, is it?" Linda questioned as she adjusted in bed a little, wincing when she moved her most injured leg.

Returning her focus to changing Linda's bandages, Frankie shook her head. "Sorry?"

"You keep looking at the clock like you can't wait to get out of here," Linda said. "I know some of my stories are a little long-winded and repetitive, but you could at least pretend to be interested."

Frankie would have felt immensely guilty if she didn't know that the smirk on Linda's face meant that she was only joking around.

"No, no, your stories are as entertaining and educational as always." Frankie smiled from behind her medical mask. "I'm just trying to gauge whether I'll have time to finish my patient notes before my shift ends."

"Well, I apologize on behalf of my third-degree dilithium burns for taking up your time." Linda sighed. "Trust me, I wish we didn't have to do so many bandage changes either."

Placing the final moist bandage that would promote skin regeneration and healing onto Linda's leg, Frankie began to clean up her supplies. "On the bright side, you are recovering remarkably well," she assured Linda. "You'll be back to bossing around those engineering cadets in no time."

The thought of getting back into the work she loved most brought a smile to Linda's face. "I forgot how much the permanent look of terror that cadets carry around on their faces brings me joy."

Frankie snickered. "It's a good thing I'm wearing this mask then. My terror is hidden."

"Oh, you know I don't mean you." Linda rolled her eyes playfully. "You actually surprised me. You're quite adequate at your job."

Frankie clutched her chest dramatically. "Linda, that might be the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me."

"Well, considering Doctor McCoy's idea of praise seems to be a stoic expression and a barely-noticeable head nod, I thought you deserved a compliment or two."

"At least someone appreciates my work." Frankie removed her gloves and mask and tossed them into the trash. Then, she glanced at the clock once more. "Yikes, five patient notes in a little under an hour. You think I can do it?"

"If anyone can, it's you."

"You are the only thing that gets me through the day, Linda," Frankie said as she headed for the door. "Have a good evening. I'll see you soon!"

"You too, Doctor Warren!"

As soon as Frankie left Linda's room, she grabbed a PADD from the nurses' station and located somewhere quiet to complete her patient notes. Despite the fact that she worked non-stop for the remainder of her shift, she wasn't able to get everything done. With one patient note left to do, she stood up from the desk she had been working at and set off to find Leonard to ask if he wanted her to stay late to finish or if he would let her do it during her next shift.

Considering Frankie had been forced to spend thirty minutes that morning reorganizing a supply closet that a delusional and severely pissed off escaped patient had trashed, she hoped Leonard would be understanding about the fact that her notes were not done on time; that, and this was the very first time that Frankie had fallen behind since being assigned to his service, and she considered that to be a pretty big accomplishment.

With PADD still in hand, Frankie rounded the corner of the hall and started toward the office that Leonard typically worked out of. It struck her as odd that the door was closed considering he almost always left it open a crack so people knew he was there. So, she assumed that he had left early for the day.

Letting out a slightly frustrated sigh, Frankie decided she would leave a note for Leonard in the office explaining what had happened so that he could read it in the morning. Normally, she would just tell him in person or in a text, but since she was working the ER that night and since he was notoriously horrible for checking his text messages, she thought a note was probably her best bet just in case.

In most cases, Frankie would have knocked on the door before opening it just to be cautious, but with the assumption that it was empty and her tired and distracted brain thinking about her ER shift that evening, it completely slipped her mind and she just opened the door . . . which turned out to be a big mistake.

As soon as Frankie realized that the office was not, in fact, empty, she froze in place and her eyes grew wide.

Sitting on the desk, Olivia had her legs spread and her Starfleet dress uniform bunched up nearly as high as her waist. Standing between her legs, Leonard's hands were gripping her thighs and his mouth was, for lack of a better descriptor, attacking hers.

"Oh, my God!" Frankie shrieked, startling the couple. "I am so sorry! I should have knocked!"

As Leonard ripped himself away from Olivia, his eyes glazed over with pure horror. Olivia, however, didn't seem the least bit embarrassed. Apparently, her attraction to Leonard hadn't been a drunken whim.

Before either one could start trying to explain themselves, Frankie practically jumped out of the office and slammed the door shut behind herself. With the image of what she had just witnessed seared into her mind, she took off down the hall, deciding at that moment that she would simply stay late to finish her notes because it would be easier to avoid Leonard in the large hospital than back at the room.

By the time Leonard had composed himself enough to exit the office, Frankie was nowhere to be seen. It was probably for the best, but the knowledge that they would eventually have to at least acknowledge what happened made him feel sick to his stomach.

Even though Frankie only had one final patient note to complete, she ended up staying at the hospital until the start of her shift in the ER. Since her mind was clearly thinking about something else—no matter how much she tried to purge it from her brain—it took her three times as long to complete the final note and by then, the thought of going back to the room just to come right back to the hospital seemed too much.

Instead, Frankie grabbed some food from the cafeteria, ate by herself, and attempted to get into a proper mindset for work. Now, exhaustion was the least of her worries.

Half an hour before the start of her shift, Frankie made her way over to the emergency room to clock in and familiarize herself with the layout. It had been years since she had worked in an ER and she knew that she would be at least a little rusty the first time back.

"You must be Doctor Warren." One of the nurses greeted Frankie and she recognized her as the woman who had been working the triage desk the night she had brought Olivia in.

Frankie nodded as she clipped her ID badge onto her top. "I am, yes. Is there anything I should know before my first shift?"

The nurse, whose nametag said Eliza Cassidy, was silent for a moment. "Have you ever worked an ER before?"

"Years ago, but yes."

Nurse Cassidy smiled. "It'll probably be just like that but with an increase of drunk students and a larger species diversity."

"I think I can handle that." Frankie turned to the whiteboard where the names of every staff member working that night were written in marker. Frankie froze when she saw 'Dr. McCoy' scribbled in messy handwriting. She had completely forgotten that he was working that night as well.

"Is something the matter?" Nurse Cassidy asked, having noticed the change in Frankie's facial expression.

Frankie forced a smile. "No, just a little nervous, is all."

"Don't worry about it," Nurse Cassidy assured her. "Before you know it, you'll be so busy that you won't even have time to be nervous."

"Thanks."

With that, Frankie forced herself to pull it together and let everything that had happened fade away. As she got to work at organizing some of the ER beds, she found herself wondering why she was so shaken in the first place. Was it purely the embarrassment that was getting to her or was it something more? She didn't care if Leonard and Olivia were together. Why should she?

Lost in thought, Frankie didn't even notice that Leonard had arrived for his shift, clocked her from across the emergency room, and had started over to her. It wasn't until the privacy curtain had been pulled around her that she noticed she wasn't alone.

"Oh!" She jumped a little, startled. Then, she realized Leonard was there. "It's you . . ."

"I just thought we should talk about what you saw."

Frankie felt her palms begin to sweat. "No, I think I'm okay, actually. I'd rather we just pretend it didn't happen. I should have knocked and that's on me."

"Well, yes, you should have," Leonard agreed. "Why didn't you?"

"I don't know!" Frankie answered. "The door was closed and I thought you had finished up early and I just wanted to leave you a note. I don't know why I didn't knock just in case. If I had known you were in there with . . . _company_ . . . I would have."

Leonard sighed, clearly uncomfortable. "Olivia isn't company, she's just-"

"No, really, it's okay. I don't need to know." Frankie held her hands up to silence Leonard. "Actually, I'd prefer not to. You and I are most definitely nowhere near friendly enough to have _that_ conversation."

"I agree. I just didn't want you to think that I'm that kind of doctor. I don't usually make it a habit to sleep with my patients."

Frankie let out an involuntary squeak. "So you're sleeping with Olivia?!"

"No!" Leonard's eyes grew wide as he realized what he had said. "Well, maybe . . . I don't know. She came by to thank me for the stitches and to apologize for how she acted when she was drunk and then she kissed me and-"

"Leonard!" Frankie put a stop to his rambling. "I don't need to know this. Really. I didn't mean to sound so shocked. Sleep with her, don't sleep with her; it really isn't any of my business."

Leonard seemed at least a little relieved. "Are you sure? I just don't want it to interfere with work."

"We made the truce, didn't we?" Frankie reminded him. "Roommate drama _and_ personal life drama. Whatever it is, it doesn't matter."

"Right." Leonard nodded. "Yeah, right. So we're good?"

"Yes," Frankie replied. "We're good. Now, let's just get this damn shift over with and go home and pretend it never happened."

"Sounds good to me."

Whether Frankie had finally hit some good luck or the Gods above were simply looking down on her that evening, her first shift was actually rather slow and easy. No major injuries came in, so for the duration of her shift, she stitched up a few cuts, inspected a clumsy cadet for a concussion, and did a lot of tidying to pass the time.

Every once in a while, Frankie would find herself without anything to do and would glance over at Leonard. No matter how hard she tried to push the thought from her head, she just couldn't stop asking herself one question: why did he care so much about what she thought about him?

While it was true that she and Leonard were no longer mortal enemies as they had been for a short period of time, they certainly weren't friends in any sense of the word. The best way that Frankie thought to describe their relationship was that they tolerated one another.

Even if Leonard somehow viewed Frankie in a slightly more flattering light than she viewed him—which was highly doubtful—there wasn't a clear way to explain why he was so concerned. Maybe he was just embarrassed? Or maybe he was worried that Frankie would tell someone?

Either way, Frankie didn't see how concerning herself with the love-life of her older, divorced roommate would benefit her in any way. So, with that, she finally put an end to the gnawing thoughts and pushed through the rest of her shift.

Just before midnight, which concluded the short four-hour shift that Frankie had signed up for, she got ready to head home. While normal hospital shifts were eight or twelve hours, the Starfleet Academy hospital allowed for shorter shifts than normal for those who were working and going to school. For that, Frankie was grateful because she couldn't possibly see herself doing school work and clinical all day long and then survive an eight hour ER shift.

Some people, however, managed to pull it off, and Leonard was one of those people.

"Heading out already?" Leonard asked as he passed by with a suture kit in hand.

"Already? I feel like I've been awake for a week straight." Frankie groaned. "I'm exhausted. How aren't you tired?"

Leonard shrugged. "Guess I'm just used to running on little to no sleep."

"I'm convinced you're not human," Frankie told him. "How much longer do you have left?"

Leonard glanced at his watch. "Four hours."

Frankie felt her body twinge with sympathy pain. "Just hearing that makes me miserable. I'm so tired that I'm not even sure I'll be able to take a shower without falling asleep and drowning."

Leonard huffed, but there was a slight indication of amusement. "I'll think you'll survive."

"Well, if you get back and the shower is still running, all I ask is that you make up a better story of how I died."

"Like what?"

Frankie closed her eyes as she thought. "I don't know. I'm too tired to think. I trust your ability to come up with something though."

"Okay." Leonard watched as Frankie swayed slightly on the spot. "Are you sure you can make it back alright?"

"Oh, yeah, don't worry about me." Frankie pinched herself so hard on the arm that she left a red mark. "Ouch." She hissed. "There, that'll buy me some time. If I leave now, I should make it back to the room before the slight stinging wears off."

Leonard furrowed his brows at the woman. "You're super weird, you know that?"

"Sweet talker." Frankie joked before turning for the door. "Okay, I'm leaving now. Goodnight!"

With that, Frankie exited the ER through the sliding doors. Although she would be outside longer, it would cut down on some time for the walk and the cold air might actually keep her awake longer. Just as she was rounding the exterior of the building, she bumped into someone.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Olivia jumped back. "Frankie! Just the person I was looking for, actually. What a coincidence!"

Frankie slumped her shoulders. This was exactly what she didn't want to deal with currently. "Hey, Olivia." Frankie sighed. "Listen, as much as I'd love to talk, I'm exhausted and I really just want to go back to my room and sleep."

"I'll keep it short then," Olivia said. "I wanted to make sure what you saw today didn't bother you."

This piqued Frankie's interest. "Bother me?" she asked. "Bother me how?"

"Because Leonard is your roommate and you guys work together."

Frankie shook her head. "No, Olivia, it doesn't bother me. Leonard and I aren't exactly best friends or anything like that. Whoever or whatever he does in his spare time is none of my business."

Olivia giggled. "Oh, good. Because I really like him."

"Do you now?" Frankie had to work hard to hide her snide amusement.

"Yeah! Aside from the fact that he's attractive in a way that only divorced guys can be—you know what I mean—he's also really smart. I think he'll be a good change from the guys I usually date."

"And what kind of guys do you usually date?"

Olivia crinkled her nose slightly as she thought. "Guys my age. Usually ripped. Traditionally hot, you know?"

"Oh, I know." Frankie prayed for this conversation to be over. "Well, I hope you two are happy with each other. Who knows, maybe you'll even counteract some of his grouchiness."

"You think so?"

"I don't know how he could possibly get any worse." Frankie gave Olivia a gentle pat on the shoulder. "He's inside if you want to see him."

Olivia grinned wide. "Really? Thanks, Frankie."

"Goodnight!" Frankie called over her shoulder, having already started walking again.

Having successfully pawned Olivia off on Leonard, Frankie continued the rest of her walk back to her room in complete silence. The campus was dead quiet and the only light came from the lamps lining the sidewalks and the glow of the moon.

For whatever reason, the last thing Frankie remembered thinking before entering her building was that Leonard _was_ traditionally attractive . . . wasn't he? Did she have a skewed opinion of attractiveness? Did Olivia?

The one thing she did know for sure was that she was capable of distinguishing physical attractiveness and the attractiveness of someone's personality. And while Leonard may have been physically attractive, even if just by her own standards, his personality was as welcoming as a feral possum.

Most of the time, at least. 


	11. Chapter 11

"You didn't!" Uhura clapped a hand over her mouth, shocked by Frankie's retelling of walking in on Olivia and Leonard.

Frankie took a sip of her coffee and nodded from across the café table. "As much as I wish I hadn't, I did. But that's not even the worst part. The worst part is that they both managed to corner me at separate times afterward, insisting to talk about it."

"Oh, my God." Uhura laughed. "Olivia has always had weird taste in men but this is a stretch, even for her."

"All I can hope for at this point is that they manage to mellow each other out a little," Frankie said. "Leonard can calm the bubbly utopia blossoming inside of Olivia and she can dust off some of his cobwebs or something."

Uhura snickered. "Do you think they'll actually start dating?"

"I'm sure I don't care enough to wonder." Frankie downed the last of her now luke-warm coffee. "All I know is that if they start hanging out at the room together and sucking face in the living room I'll be forced to promptly locate the closet bottle of bleach and pour it into my eyes. Or drink it. Either would work."

"I didn't even think about that," Uhura admitted. "What if they go to the Halloween party together?!"

Frankie shrugged. "From what Jim has told me, it will be a miracle if Leonard shows up at all, let alone with someone. But Olivia is for sure going, isn't she?"

"She better be." Uhura's brows knit together. "We have matching costumes."

"Awh, that's cute."

"Cute isn't exactly what we're going for if you catch my drift, but yeah. Cute. What are you wearing?"

"I have an old costume somewhere in my closet that I'll throw on."

Uhura frowned. "That's no fun."

"I'm going for the alcohol, not the costumes."

"Fair."

After Uhura had finished her coffee, the two women left the café and started for the library where they were supposed to meet up with Wade and Maggie.

"So, what about you?" Frankie made idle conversation as they strolled along the sidewalk. "Are you seeing anyone?"

"If this is Jim asking, then yes," Uhura cocked a brow. "But if it's you asking, then no. Not really."

Frankie's face lit up with intrigue. "'Not really'? Now, what could that possibly mean?"

"It means not really." Uhura tried to play it cool, but it didn't take her very long to realize that Frankie wasn't going to leave her alone until she came clean. "Okay, fine, but you can't tell anyone. There's a commander I'm interested in."

Frankie's mouth dropped open. "A commander?!"

"Commander Spock," she elaborated. "He's a science officer. He's also Vulcan."

"That's hot."

"Frankie!"

"Oh, I'm sorry, are we going to pretend that this whole teacher and student thing you've got going on _isn't_ kinky?"

Uhura's cheeks flushed red. "I shouldn't have told you."

"You know I'm just kidding around." Frankie bumped her shoulder against Uhura's. "I hope it works out for you."

Uhura smiled softly. "Thanks. Enough about me. What about you?"

"What about me?" Frankie played dumb, not exactly wanting to delve into her non-existent love-life.

"Seeing anyone? Interested in anyone?"

"My most exciting relationship right now is the one I have with my burn patient. I change her bandages and she tells me stories from her adventures in space. We might be soul mates."

Uhura rolled her eyes, slowly becoming fed-up with Frankie's never-ending sarcasm. "You're impossible to get a straight answer out of."

"But you love me anyway."

"Yeah, I do."

Not a minute later, the two women reached the library where they joined Wade and Maggie for another one of their weekend study hangouts. Unsurprisingly, not a lot of studying got done, mostly because Uhura kept bringing up the Halloween party, continuously and not-so-subtly encouraging Wade to finally pluck up the courage to ask Maggie to go with him.

By the end of the session, Wade still hadn't popped the question, so to speak, and sweet Maggie was somehow still completely unaware.

Bidding her friends a good night, Frankie started back for her room right around dinner time and tried to decide what she was going to eat as she walked. Unable to decide between replicating some pancakes—because she was weirdly in the mood for breakfast for dinner—or a simple sandwich with leftover stuff from the fridge, she figured that once she got hungry enough she would know what she truly wanted.

As Frankie approached the door to her room, however, the delicious scent of buttered popcorn filled her nostrils and suddenly she wanted to eat nothing but popcorn. When she opened the door, she was surprised to find both Jim and Leonard sitting on the couch, the curtains drawn to make the room dark and the TV playing some old-looking movie.

"Whatcha watching?" Frankie asked.

"Dracula. You know, in the spirit of Halloween and all that," Jim answered as he held out the bowl of popcorn over the back of the couch. "Want some?"

Unable to resist, Frankie stepped closer and took up Jim on his offer. "Bram Stoker's original or one of the many remakes?" she inquired as she popped a kernel into her mouth.

"I wouldn't be here if it wasn't Bram Stoker," Leonard said. "All the other ones are garbage."

"I'm surprised you're here at all," Frankie told him. "No studying? No shift at the hospital? _No Olivia?_ "

Jim's eyes grew as wide as saucers in a matter of seconds and he paused the movie. "I'm sorry. Olivia?!" He turned to Leonard. "Who's Olivia?"

Frankie chuckled as she realized that this was the first Jim was hearing about Olivia. She was surprised that Leonard hadn't told his best friend yet, which meant that whatever was going on with Olivia was either super serious or nothing at all.

"Thank you for that." Leonard groaned.

"Oops." Frankie smiled sheepishly as she kicked off her shoes, plopped down in the single armchair, and wrapped herself in a blanket. "Didn't mean to spill the beans on that one. Sorry."

"Excuse me?!" Jim waved his hands in the air dramatically. "Who is Olivia?!"

Leonard threw his head back out of frustration. "Christ, Jim. Just a girl. Will you settle down?"

"Why did Frankie know about this girl before I did?" Jim demanded to know. "I don't put up with you to not get first dibs on the occasional interesting tidbits about your life."

Frankie and Leonard made eye contact, silently deciding if they were going to tell the truth or not. On one hand, Leonard didn't want Jim to think that he had in any way confided in Frankie before him; but on the other hand, he didn't really want anyone else to find out about the embarrassing thing Frankie had walked in on.

"I introduced them," Frankie said. It wasn't so much a lie rather than just telling the wrong truth. "Well, sort of. Long story short, Olivia cut her hand and needed stitches and Leonard just so happened to be working in the ER that night."

Jim's face lit up like a child on Christmas morning. "Bones! This is great! You haven't been with a girl in-"

"Okay! That's not something we need to discuss right now." Leonard gave a subtle head nod in Frankie's direction before he grabbed the remote out of Jim's hand and pressed play. "Everyone just shut up about it and watch the damn movie."

"Fine, but you're giving me details later," Jim whispered, and those were the last words spoken by either three of them for the rest of the film.

As soon as the credits began to roll, Leonard stood up from the couch and retreated to his room before Jim could start bombarding him with questions.

"He's never been this cagey about a girl before." Jim's face fell as he slumped back into the couch. "Are they dating or is it just a hookup thing?"

"If you're asking me if I know the status of Leonard's relationship, the answer is no, I don't," Frankie answered. "Why don't you just ask him yourself? You two are best friends."

"That's what I'm saying though!" Jim exclaimed before lowering his voice. "He always tells me everything and now suddenly, boom! Nothing."

Frankie rolled her eyes. "It's probably just because he doesn't want to talk about it in front of me."

"But he didn't even tell me in the first place."

"Maybe there isn't anything to tell. Maybe they made out once and called it quits."

Jim scoffed. "With Bones, there is always something to tell. He's not like me. Every woman in his life means something, no matter how short or how long their stay in the Bone Zone is."

Frankie let out a shocked shriek. "I cannot believe you just said that!"

"I know, right?" Jim smirked, clearly proud of himself. "Nice little play on words there."

"I feel physically ill."

"Ah, you'll get over it."

"I sure hope so." Frankie wrapped the blanket tighter around her body and tucked her feet underneath herself. "Anyway, let's change the subject."

Letting out a loud yawn, Jim stretched his long limbs and laid down on the couch, taking up all three cushions. "What do you wanna talk about?"

Frankie thought for a moment. "I don't know. Tell me about yourself. I feel like we barely know each other."

"Boring." He chuckled. "If we're gonna ask each other questions, let's make it fun. 21 questions style."

"Not exactly the type of information I was alluding to but sure." Frankie agreed. "You go first."

A devilish grin spread across Jim's face. "Oh, you're gonna regret that. Okay, um . . . how old were you when you lost your virginity?"

Frankie had certainly not been expecting that. "How about we work up to those kinds of questions?"

"What? Too personal?" He laughed. "I'll tell you how old I was."

"Suddenly, I regret everything."

"I warned you, didn't I?"

Frankie shook her head and rolled her eyes. "How about I ask you a question?"

"I'm listening." Jim sat up a little, his left eyebrow cocked with intrigue.

"Why do you pretend to be this guy who doesn't care about anything when in reality you've got a heart of gold under that ladies' man exterior?"

Folding his hands behind his head, Jim exhaled slowly. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"No, of course, you don't." Frankie teased. "So I suppose you replaced my Starfleet mug just despite me and not because you're a good friend?"

Jim's eyebrows furrowed together with confusion. "What?"

"My Starfleet mug. The one I broke," Frankie told him. "You bought me a new one and left it on the table. There was a note and everything. Do you seriously not remember?"

Jim shook his head. "I didn't buy you a new mug."

"What?" It was Frankie's turn to be confused. "If you didn't, then who did?"

Then, in unison, Frankie and Jim turned to look at Leonard's bedroom door.

"No." Frankie refused to believe it. "He wouldn't, would he?"

Jim shrugged. "Apparently he would because I swear it wasn't me."

Jumping up from the armchair, Frankie marched into the kitchen, opened the cabinet, and pulled out the new black and gold Starfleet mug. "You're telling me that Leonard bought me this?" She kept her voice down as she pointed to the mug in her hand.

"It was either him or we have a really friendly ghost living here with us."

"Oh, my God." Frankie wasn't sure what to say. "I assumed it was you." She put the mug back.

Jim leaned over the back of the couch and shook his head. "As much as I would love to take credit for that and possibly earn some brownie points, I can't. Which begs the question, what kind of freaky blackmail shit do you have on him? Because he never goes out of his way to do stuff like that for anyone except me on the rare occasion. And I've put in three years of hard work to get to that level of friendship with him."

Frankie briefly thought back to when she had walked in on Leonard and Olivia, but the mug couldn't have been an attempt to buy her silence because it had appeared before she had witnessed the two of them together. Aside from that, she knew nothing about Leonard that he didn't want her to know—besides the divorce, but that wasn't exactly blackmail material.

"Now, hear me out." Frankie paused to bask in the insanity of what she was about to say. "Do you think he did it because he felt bad?"

"I don't know," Jim said. "Maybe you should ask him?"

"No." Frankie refused. "If it really was him and he hasn't brought it up on his own by now, he clearly doesn't want to address it."

Jim nodded. "Good point. Never speak of it ever."

"I can do that."

"Good." Jim's eyes wandered back over to Leonard's door for a moment. "Does this mean he doesn't hate you anymore?"

"I quite honestly never have any idea what he is feeling about anyone or anything. That man is the epitome of an enigma."

Jim let out an amused snicker. "Bet you wish you would have just answered the virginity question now, don't you?"

"I'm never answering that question purely on principle."


	12. Chapter 12

"No, put those over there," Jim instructed as he dashed back and forth from the kitchen to the living room, setting up food for the Halloween party that night and supervising the decorations that Frankie was stringing all over the room.

Wiping a bead of sweat from her brow, Frankie let out a sigh and turned to face Jim. "Don't make me regret offering to help you," she warned as she maintained her balance on the chair she was standing on.

"Right." Jim exhaled and flashed a sheepish grin. "Sorry. I'm just trying to make sure everything looks awesome."

"You know everyone is going to be way too hammered within the first two hours to even notice the decorations, right?"

"Yeah, I know. But it doesn't feel like a proper Halloween party without them."

Frankie just shrugged. "Whatever you say. As long as you pay me off with the vodka you promised, I'm a happy camper."

Having already been up for two hours decorating the room, Frankie returned to the task at hand and finished stringing up the remaining cobwebs. The thought of how annoying everything would be to clean up when she was hungover the next morning flashed through her mind, but that was a problem she chose to let her future self deal with.

While Frankie had offered to spend her Saturday helping out Jim, Leonard had been at the hospital since the early morning, no doubt trying to avoid as much of the prep work as possible. While he had told Jim in passing that he would be at the party without giving any additional details, it was a complete mystery as to when he would decide to show up and how much he would actually participate.

'I'll be there' could mean anything from being locked away in a bedroom all night to doing body shots off of the nearest girl. Frankie had yet to witness Leonard in any sort of environment that wasn't a roommate or professional one and didn't know what to expect.

By noon, the room was as ready as it was going to get and Jim had run out to buy the alcohol, which was arguably the most important part of the entire evening. Once Frankie was absolutely positive that she didn't want to move anything around anymore and had convinced herself that she was happy with her mediocre decorating skills, she grabbed her costume for that evening along with her makeup bag and got ready to head over to Uhura's, where she and the other women had agreed to get ready together.

With all of her supplies in hand, Frankie had barely even knocked on Uhura's door before it swung open frantically. Uhura, who had half of her hair straightened, looked like she was in a crisis.

"There you are!" Uhura practically yanked Frankie into the room. "Olivia ditched me last minute. Now I have no one to match my costume with."

"That sucks." Frankie noticed Maggie in the corner, who was halfway through what looked like the makeup for a Queen of Hearts costume. "Hey, Maggie."

Maggie grinned back at Frankie through the mirror as she focused on painting a red heart around her left eye. "Hey, Frankie! What's your costume?"

Pulling the costume that she wore every year out of the bag, Frankie showed it off. It was a simple black long-sleeved full bodysuit with a skeleton painted overtop. "Skeleton," she answered.

"Oh, cute!"

"Guys, back to my crisis!" Uhura snatched an orange piece of fabric off of the back of the couch. "What am I going to do? I mean, I'll still look awesome, but the costume won't make any sense without the other half."

"I doubt anyone will be worrying if the costume makes sense," Frankie assured her. "Why did Olivia bail anyway?"

Uhura shrugged. "I don't know. She wouldn't say. All she told me was that she had to change plans last minute and that she would meet us there."

"Weird," Frankie noted. "Well, I guess I better start getting ready."

With that, each of the three women got to work. While Maggie finished her makeup and Uhura finished her hair, Frankie started her best version of a casual but noticeable makeup look with a smokey eye, lipstick, and the works. She even used fake eyelashes, which was something she almost never did. Then, she curled her hair, which was always the longest part of her routine and why she usually opted to throw her hair into a ponytail for everyday situations.

Then, all there was left to do before the pregaming began was to change into her costume. As soon as Frankie began to slip the bodysuit on, she could tell it was tighter than she remembered, but she persisted anyway. Surely the workout routine she had picked up over the summer hadn't made _that_ much of a difference.

Frankie had almost gotten the costume all the way on when she heard a loud and clearly identifiable _rip_. "Oh, my God." Frankie turned around to look in the bathroom mirror. The bodysuit had torn right down the seem on her behind.

"Guys, we have a problem." Frankie stepped out into the living room, where both Uhura and Maggie were completely ready. Maggie was wearing a black and red Queen of Hearts dress and Uhura was wearing a skimpy orange bodysuit that read **INMATE** on the front.

Knowing that she was going to be teased, Frankie exhaled before turning around to display the issue.

Both women burst out laughing. "You have way too much ass for that costume!" Maggie blurted out. "Damn, girl!"

"All I did was workout a little over the summer." Frankie's shoulders slumped in defeat. "What am I supposed to do?"

Uhura's eyes lit up. Without saying anything, she darted into her bedroom and returned seconds later with an article of black clothing. "Here. It's Olivia's part of the matching costume." She thrust the costume into Frankie's hands. "Try it on. Someone might as well wear it."

Having no other options, Frankie took the black costume back into the bathroom with her. After slowly peeling the skeleton bodysuit off, she slipped into the black bodysuit that matched Uhura's—with long sleeves and no legs. It read **OFFICER** on the front.

"How creative," Frankie muttered to herself as she turned around to examine herself. Aside from the fact that this costume was a little small in the backside region as well, it fit pretty well. Pulling on her black thigh-high boots to complete the look, Frankie exited the bathroom.

"Yes!" Uhura cheered. "You look way better in that than Oliva! Oh, don't tell her I said that."

Maggie flashed a thumbs up while she downed whatever was in the red solo cup she was holding. "You look hot," she said after swallowing.

"You sure it's not too much?" Frankie wasn't too sure about it. "My ass is half out."

"That's the point!" Uhura reached over and smacked Frankie on the ass. "It's the one day of the year where we can wear something outrageously inappropriate and not worry about it showing up on our cadet file later. Take this opportunity and grab it by the balls!"

"Okay!" Frankie laughed. "Not that I have much of a choice, but I'll wear it."

"Good!" Uhura jogged over to the table in her heels and poured a combination of liquids into a cup. Then, she handed said cup to Frankie. "Now, drink up! I want to be halfway to obliterated before we even show up to the party."

Since Jim's party didn't officially start until 9 pm and Uhura wanted to arrive thirty minutes later to let everything get started, the three women had tons of time to drink before they went over. Neither one of them drank an outrageous amount but rather just enough to get a good buzz going.

When it was finally time to leave, Frankie, Uhura, and Maggie gave themselves one last look in the mirror, complemented each other's costumes, and headed out.

"So, did Wade ever pluck up the courage to ask you out for the party tonight?" Uhura asked Maggie.

Maggie's cheeks flushed red, which meant that Wade had, in fact, asked her. "Yes, he did." She nodded. "I didn't even know he liked me like that."

"The that would have made you the only one," Frankie said. "Because he was not subtle . . . _at all._ "

"Nope. It was so obvious," Uhura agreed. "So, did you say yes?"

"Of course!" Maggie answered. "I think he's really sweet. Our room situation really worked out for the best, I think."

Frankie snorted. "You're welcome for that, by the way."

The music from Frankie, Jim, and Leonard's shared room could be heard clear as day from the hall—which was probably due to the fact that the door was left wide open, allowing people to come and go as they pleased without having to worry about the door code.

"We're here, bitches!" Uhura announced, which turned quite a few heads.

Maggie immediately disbanded from the group in search of Wade and Frankie secretly hoped that the two of them would be found making out in some dark corner by the end of the night. They really would make a cute couple.

"Oh, you're finally here!" Jim pushed his way through the already thick crowd of people. He was wearing round sunglasses and a typical outfit from the 70s, complete with bellbottom pants and a super trippy shirt. "The place looks great, Frankie. You did an awesome job."

"I'm glad you like it!" Frankie had to raise her voice as a particularly loud song came over the speakers. "I assume you got the alcohol."

Jim held up his cup and took a large sip. "Oh, so much of it!"

Making a beeline for the kitchen, where all the drinks and food were laid out, Frankie and Uhura poured themselves a vodka soda each and startled mingling. This was the first time that Frankie had met some of Jim's other friends and so far, they all seemed to like her way more than Leonard did; but that wasn't exactly hard to achieve.

"Oh my fucking God." Uhura gasped out of nowhere.

Turning around, Frankie followed her friend's gaze to the doorway and her jaw dropped. Olivia had just arrived wearing black leather pants, a black off-the-shoulder top, red heels, and had done her up in tight curls. She was obviously supposed to be Sandy from Grease, but that wasn't the shocking part. The real jaw-dropper was that Leonard was standing beside her in black jeans, a white t-shirt, and a leather jacket. He was the Danny to her Sandy.

Okay, so maybe it hadn't been a one-time makeout thing between them.

"Jim!" Frankie pulled on Jim's sleeve frantically to get his attention. "Jim, you have to see this."

When Jim turned and saw the Leonard had not only stuck to word and showed up but had _also_ dressed up, he damn near lost his mind. "Holy shit!" he exclaimed. "Someone needs to take a photo right fucking now."

"Olivia ditched me for Doctor Hardass?" Uhura narrowed her eyes. "What. The. Fuck."

"I'm confused by so many things right now," Frankie said.

"Also," Uhura eyed Leonard, "why does he look hot?" She grimaced, clearly uncomfortable with how the sight of Leonard in a leather jacket made her feel.

"I don't know but I need more alcohol," Frankie stated, also unable to deny that the whole greaser look was really working for the doctor. She promptly took a sip of her drink.

As Jim made his way over to greet Leonard, who looked exhausted after his shift, Olivia took that cue to make her way over to Uhura, Frankie, and Maggie and Wade, who had just joined the gawk-fest over the newest arrivals.

"Hey!" Olivia chirped. "Uhura, I'm so sorry I backed out last minute without much of an explanation, but I wanted it to be a surprise. So, surprise!"

Uhura's eyes flitted back and forth. She was clearly confused. "I'm sorry, what's the surprise?"

"Leonard and I, silly! We're dating."

Frankie half gasped as she was swallowing and the mixture of soda and vodka she had drunk went down her windpipe. Immediately, she began to cough.

"Easy there." Wade patted her on the back as she sputtered. "You okay?"

"I'm fine. I'm fine." Frankie drew in a deep breath, replaying what Olivia had said over and over again in her head. "You and Leonard, huh? That's so . . . unexpected," she said before catching herself. "But great! I'm so happy for you."

Olivia beamed. "I'm so glad you approve. We have you to thank, after all. We probably wouldn't even be together if you hadn't encouraged it."

"Oh, I don't think I did that," Frankie muttered into her cup. "Excuse me, I need a refill."

Parting ways from her friends, Frankie wandered back into the kitchen where, much to her dismay, Leonard was leaning against the counter with a drink in his hand and a rather displeased look on his face.

"You dressed up," Frankie pointed out the obvious, knowing that it would be weird if she didn't make small talk at this point.

"As did you." Leonard nodded. "Your costume is very . . . tight."

Frankie tried not to overthink the fact that Leonard had noticed how tight her bodysuit was. "Yes, well, it was supposed to fit your girlfriend." Frankie dropped the bomb that she knew he and Olivia were together. "Congratulations are in order, I hear."

"Mmm." he hummed, taking another sip of his drink. "I don't want to talk about it. Jim already pressed me for every single detail possible."

"The last thing I'm looking for is details," she assured him. "Can I just ask one question though?"

Leonard rolled his eyes but didn't stop her.

"Why?" Frankie asked.

Leonard cocked an eyebrow. "Why what?"

"Why her?" Frankie elaborated. "Don't get me wrong, I think Olivia is the nicest person on the planet, but she is so bubbly and excited about everything and you are . . . well, you are you."

Leonard shrugged and the leather jacket tightened around his broad shoulders. "Never heard the saying, 'opposites attract'?"

"Yeah but there are opposites and then there's you two."

"I don't know what to tell you, Frankie." Leonard sighed. "It's been a while since I've dated anyone and she's nice and kind and doesn't seem like she'd kill me in my sleep. Plus . . . she was interested. That's all I want to say on the matter."

"Okay." Frankie nodded, dropping the subject. Suddenly, she was overcome with a feeling of sympathy. Did Leonard really think that he had so few options that he had to jump at the first woman who came knocking? Surely that wasn't true. He may have the prickly exterior of a cactus but, according to Jim, he had a heart of gold and he really wasn't that bad looking—especially in a leather jacket, apparently.

"I wish the two of you all the best." Frankie lightly bumped her plastic cup against Leonards's. "To new chapters in life or whatever people who are good at toasts say."

Leonard huffed. "What's your new chapter?"

"It's October 31st. Last day of the month," Frankie said. "I start my emergency room clinical rotation on Monday. You no longer have to see my face both here and at the hospital . . . and you don't have to worry about me walking into closed offices anymore."

Leonard cracked a small smile at that; a small smile that Frankie had come to feel proud of herself when she saw. That smile meant that she had managed to crack through his impossibly thick and tough shell. "Thank God for that," he replied.

"Well, I'm off to make sure Uhura doesn't hook up with some random guy or, God forbid, Jim." Frankie refilled her cup quickly. "I'm sure I'll see you around."

"Have fun," Leonard called after her. He opted to stay right where he was, more than happy to watch everyone else party until he could slip off to his room and sleep.

By midnight, about fifty people were casually making their way in and out of the party. There were probably about ten different parties on campus, which meant that most students were making the rounds and visiting as many as they could.

Jim, who was completely plastered by that point, was continuously asking everyone if they were having a good time; especially Frankie and Leonard, who he bugged every thirty minutes or so.

"Did I tell you how hot you look in that costume?" Jim asked as he sidled up next to Frankie.

"Oh, it's you again. And you're drunker than the last time I saw you." Frankie teased. "Yes, you mentioned it once or twice already."

Jim grinned wide. "Good. Because you do . . . look hot, that is."

"Thank you, Jim." Frankie simply took the compliments as exactly that. As far as she knew, Jim had stopped trying to get into her pants after the first week of them living together. "Are you happy with the turnout?"

"This is this best party yet!" Jim cheered. "And I owe it all to you. You helped so much. You're so nice and helpful."

With that, Jim wrapped his arm around Frankie's shoulders and squeezed her tight.

Frankie laughed. "You're gonna hurt so much in the morning," she told him.

"Fuck yeah, I am." He seemed rather pleased by that notion. Then, without warning, he took off into the crowd of people and disappeared.

Leaning back against the wall, with her fifth or sixth drink in hand, Frankie closed her eyes, listened intently to the blasting music, and enjoyed the care-free state that the alcohol had left her in. When she opened her eyes again, she took a moment to just observe the party and her friends. Jim was laughing with some of his friends, Uhura was dancing with Olivia in the middle of the room, and Wade and Maggie were having a conversation on the couch, sitting awfully close to one another.

For the first time since the academic year had begun, Frankie truly felt that, despite the rather rocky beginning, things had worked out for the best.

Before she knew it, Frankie was grinning to herself.

"Hey!" Uhura shouted as she jogged over, pulling Olivia by the wrist with her. "We were gonna go visit one of the other parties. Olivia says she knows someone who knows the guy who's throwing it and apparently there's karaoke! You wanna come?"

Frankie chuckled at the thought of Uhura doing drunk karaoke. "No, thanks. I think I'm gonna stay here; probably call it a night soon. Thanks anyway, though. You guys have fun."

"Suit yourself." Uhura giggled. "If we aren't back in an hour tops, send out the search party."

"Will do," Frankie said, but before she could her full answer out, Uhura and Olivia were already half-way out the door.

Pushing off the wall, Frankie winced slightly at the feeling of the tight bodysuit digging into her behind. For the first little while, the fact that it was a little small wasn't a problem, but now the fabric was beginning to hurt. If she was going to continue to enjoy this party, she was going to have to change.

Praying that her bedroom was empty and that no one had decided to use it as a make-out spot, Frankie opened her door slowly and peeked her head inside. Thankfully, her room was not being used for sex, but it wasn't empty either. Sitting at her desk, Leonard had his head resting in one hand while he used the other hand to lazily flip through the pages of one of her textbooks.

Frankie smiled slightly when she remembered her first experience in the room and when she had, without knowing who it had belonged to at the time, flipped through one of Leonard's textbooks.

"It's probably not as advanced as what you're used to," Frankie said, startling Leonard a little. "I don't think you'll find much in there that you don't already know."

"Sorry." He closed the book and turned to face her. "I didn't mean to snoop . . . or intrude. My room is currently . . . _occupied_."

"It's fine. Don't worry about it," she assured him, closing the door behind herself. "Olivia ventured to one of the other parties, by the way. In case you didn't know. She's with Uhura though."

Leonard nodded. "Thanks."

"Yeah." Frankie was a little unsure if it would be weird for her to change now. She could try to grab some other clothes and change in the bathroom, but the bathroom probably had a line-up, as it had most of the night. "So, you were right . . . this costume is horrendously tight."

Leonard chuckled; his harsh demeanour apparently easier to break through once he had a few drinks in him. "It looks uncomfortable."

"It is." Frankie nodded. "I was going to change but . . ."

"Oh!" Leonard caught on to what she was referring to. "I'll leave." He moved to stand up.

"No, it's okay." Frankie stopped him, not entirely sure why she was doing so. "I'll be like two seconds. Just don't look."

Leonard took a moment to contemplate the possible repercussions of being in the same room as an undressed woman—whether it was two seconds or not—when he had just started dating Olivia. Then, seemingly deciding that the risk was worth having to spend another second in the party, he spun in the desk chair, his back to Frankie. For good measure, he also closed his eyes and clapped his hands over them.

"I promise I won't look," he said.

"Good." Frankie started squirming and pushing the bodysuit off of herself, quickly realizing that the combination of her inebriated state, the tightness of the material, and the thin layer of sweat from dancing was doing nothing to help her in this endeavour. "Okay, maybe a little longer than two seconds." She couldn't help but laugh at herself. "I might be a little stuck."

Leonard snorted. "Do you need help?"

"No, no, I've got it. I've just gotta . . . there we go." Frankie managed to push the costume over her hips. "Freedom!" she announced before throwing on a pair of sweats and a light sweater. "Okay, you can look now."

Removing his hands, opening his eyes, and spinning back around in the chair, Leonard nodded. "That looks much more comfortable."

"Oh, it most definitely is." Frankie collapsed onto her bed and relished in the feeling of the soft mattress and sheets. Maybe she wouldn't be returning to the party after all. "So . . . how was your day today?"

Leonard shrugged. "It was fine. I would give more details but you already know what it's all about. Classes. The hospital. It's absolutely thrilling. How was your day?"

"I spent the morning trying to get Jim to stop breathing down my neck about the decorations," Frankie answered. "Then I spent the afternoon trying to get Uhura to stop breathing down my neck about that damn costume. Clearly, I only succeeded in one of those attempts considering I was just forced to snake-slither out of a bodysuit."

"That's a mental image I didn't need."

Frankie chuckled. "You're welcome. Happy Halloween."

For another hour or so, Frankie and Leonard made friendly conversation while the party raged on in the common area. Surprisingly, there wasn't a single moment where Frankie felt like she was walking on eggshells. Maybe it was the alcohol, or maybe she was finally growing on him, but Leonard was actually engaging with her.

Around 1:30 am, when the party finally started dying down, Leonard bid Frankie goodnight and left to see if his room was empty or not yet. Just as Frankie had resigned herself to sleeping in her makeup, the door opened again and Leonard returned with a slightly annoyed and slightly embarrassed look on his face.

"There are two half-naked people asleep in my bed," he said with a dejected look on his face.

Frankie had to cover her mouth to stop from bursting out laughing. "What about the couch?"

"Your friends, Wade and Maggie or whatever their names are, are making out on it."

"This night is just a series of unfortunate events for you, isn't it?"

"It would appear so, yes."

Grabbing one of her pillows and tossing it onto the carpeted floor, Frankie gestured to it before making her way to the closet and pulling out one of her other blankets. "This is the best I can do for you." She created a make-shift and probably very uncomfortable bed on the floor.

"Anything is better than nothing." Leonard graciously accepted. "Thank you. I'm really sorry about this."

"It's not your fault." Frankie turned off the bedroom light on her way back into bed, swallowing the room in darkness.

For the first five minutes or so, the two laid on their backs, staring up at the ceiling in silence. Then, a gnawing question began to pick away at Frankie's mind and no matter how hard she tried to banish it and go to sleep, she just couldn't.

"Hey, Leonard?" Frankie whispered.

There was no response at first. Then, "Yes?"

"The other day, when you said-" Before Frankie could finish her question, her bedroom door burst open and Jim stumbled in.

"Oh, here you both are!" He seemed relieved to have found his roommates. "I was looking for you."

Frankie rolled her eyes. "Surprise. Here I am . . . in _my_ room."

"Listen, is there room in here for me?" Jim asked, closing the door behind himself and inviting himself into the room. "There's a girl in my bed who is insisting on cuddling and . . . Bones, you know how I feel about that."

Leonard groaned. "Oh, for christ's sake, Jim!"

Without even waiting for Frankie to answer, Jim dropped down onto the floor beside Leonard and started getting comfortable. "Sleepover," he drunkenly sing-songed.

"I cannot believe all three of us are grown fucking adults." Frankie sighed.

Leonard huffed as he pushed Jim off of himself. "You and me both. And I thought my divorce was going to be the lowest point of my life."

Frankie didn't laugh but she did smirk, her amusement hidden in the darkness.

In an alarmingly short amount of time, Jim began to snore softly, indicating that he was completely passed out. With her earlier question having left her subconscious, Frankie was on the brink of sleep herself when Leonard spoke.

"You were gonna say something earlier." He looked up at her from the floor. Frankie could just barely make out the features of his face from the dim moonlight shining through the window.

Suddenly, the question was back and she was just as curious as ever. "Oh, right." She shifted in bed and scooted closer to the edge. "The other day, when you said that you didn't hate me, were you telling the truth?"

For a second, it seemed as though Leonard wasn't going to answer. Then, in a hushed voice, he said, "Yes, I was telling the truth. I might hate a lot of things and a lot of people in life, but you aren't one of them."

"I'm glad to hear it." Frankie smiled, knowing now that maybe the doctor's tell of pursing his lips wasn't quite as foolproof as she had originally thought. "I don't hate you either." She paused for a moment, remembering just then something else that she had wanted to bring up as well. "I couldn't possibly hate someone who would be nice enough to replace a mug that _I_ broke."

Leonard didn't respond to that, but it was clear now that him replacing the mug was out in the open and Frankie knew it was him who had done it.

Having gotten the answer that she didn't even know she had been hoping for, Frankie rolled over and within seconds had succumbed to a night of deep, dreamless sleep. 


	13. Chapter 13

Unlike the last time she had been out drinking the night before, Frankie was most certainly not hangover-free when she woke up the morning after the Halloween party. A pounding headache and the feeling that she might throw up were the first things to greet her when she awoke sometime around noon on Sunday.

In addition, Frankie had also fallen asleep in her makeup, so not only did she feel like a trainwreck, but she looked like one as well.

When Frankie rolled over in bed and glanced down onto her floor, Jim was still passed out with the pillow and blanket that she had let him and Leonard use. Leonard, of course, was nowhere to be seen; which didn't surprise Frankie in the least. Based on how uncomfortable he had seemed about having to sleep on her floor, there was no way he was going to be there any longer than possible, meaning that he was probably back in his own bed or already awake for the day.

"Jim," Frankie whispered as she sat up slowly. "You awake?"

When no response came, Frankie decided just to let the man sleep. Despite his habit of waking up early and bouncing back fast, there was no way he was going to be a functional human anytime soon after the amount of alcohol he had consumed at the party.

Venturing out of her room, Frankie felt like an agoraphobic leaving her house for the first time in months. The unfamiliar sight before her was a tad shocking and a little scary. There were still cadets sleeping off their alcohol poisoning on the couches and the floor, half of the decorations had fallen or been ripped down, and the place was generally just a mess.

"Oh, my God." Frankie groaned. The last thing she wanted to do was clean up. Right then, she hated her past self for deciding to put up every single one of the decorations that she and Jim had bought.

Noticing that Leonard's room door was half-open, she tip-toed over and peeked inside, half expecting to see the same half-naked couple that Leonard had said were occupying his bed the night before. Instead, however, Leonard himself was fast asleep.

Frankie couldn't help but stop for a moment. Not only had she never been awake before Leonard, but she had never even seen him sleep. Up until that moment, she half believed that he gained his energy from the sun like a plant or something.

She noticed that the usual scowl of disapproval was missing from his face when he slept, and for the first time ever, he actually looked like a normal and pleasant person.

Remembering what Leonard had told her the night before about not hating her, she smiled to herself before quietly closing his room door.

Then, as much as she didn't want to, she got to work on cleaning up. After taking a quick shower, wiping away her smudged makeup, and downing two Advil with a huge glass of ice-cold water, she started.

The first thing she needed to do was wake up all the stragglers and get them out of her room. Thankfully, there were only three left by the time Frankie had showered, so she gently shook each of them awake and sent them on their way.

Following the removal of the leftover cadets, Frankie grabbed a large trash bag and started filling it with everything she could. Cups, decorations, random trash; it all went into the bag. Before long, Frankie had three full bags of trash lined up at the door and moved on to cleaning up the kitchen.

Approximately an hour and a half later, the entire room looked as close to spotless as Frankie was willing to get it. Exhausted, she collapsed onto the couch and took a moment to relax. It was then that she noticed her headache was almost gone and her nausea had subsided, leaving behind the slight feeling of hunger. The only problem was, she was now too tired to get something to eat, even if the kitchen was only ten steps away. The couch was just so comfortable.

Thankfully, it wasn't long after before Jim stumbled out of Frankie's room, his hair a mess and clothing dishevelled. Maybe she could get him to grab some food or even, if she was lucky, make something.

"Good morning, Sleeping Beauty." Frankie looked at him over the back of the couch. "Sleep well?"

Jim groaned and yawned. "Your floor is uncomfortable as fuck. My back hurts."

"That's probably because the floor isn't meant to be slept on," she replied. "Especially when you have a bed."

Jim glanced across the room to his bedroom, which he could tell was now empty through the open doorway. "Oh, good . . . she's gone."

"Who was she?" Frankie asked. "And what about her was so bad that you chose to sleep on the floor instead of with her?"

Jim thought for a moment before chuckling. "I don't even remember."

Frankie cocked a brow. "She wasn't the girl you were trying to impress with the party?"

"No. No, I don't even know her name."

"Stay classy."

"Will do." Jim scratched his head as he looked around. "Where's Bones?"

Frankie jabbed a thumb in the direction of Leonard's bedroom. "Still sleeping."

"And where did the mess go? I swear this place was not this clean last night."

"I cleaned up. You're welcome."

Jim smiled wide. "You're the best." He then started for the kitchen. "I need coffee. You want some?"

"Oh, yes, please."

As Jim shuffled into the kitchen and started the coffee maker, Frankie pulled herself off of the couch, took a few steps, and collapsed into a chair at the dining table.

There was silence for a few moments before Jim leaned back against the counter, folded his arms, and smirked. "So, Leonard and Olivia?"

Having completely forgotten about that recent development, Frankie's eyes grew wide. "Oh, my God. Right?" She made sure to keep her voice down. "That was so out of left field. I never expected them to actually start dating."

"You're telling me," Jim agreed. "When he showed up in costume I thought that was going to be the biggest shock of the evening. This is so unlike him."

Frankie sighed. "Dating?"

"Dating someone like Olivia. But hey, maybe she'll be good for him."

"That's what I'm hoping for." Frankie nodded as the coffee maker's red light turned green, indicating that the coffee was ready.

Turning toward the counter, Jim pulled two mugs out of the cabinet—one of which was the replaced Starfleet mug—and filled them both with coffee. After fixing them with cream and sugar, he handed the Starfleet mug to Frankie and she wrapped her small hands around it, sighing happily at the warmth.

"Thanks."

With the liquid much too hot to drink yet and the steam wafting out of the mugs, the two roommates sat in silence for a while longer before taking their first sips and continuing their conversation.

"Speaking of dating." Jim seemed to physically melt into the feeling of the warm coffee running down his throat. "One of my friends was asking about you last night."

Frankie quirked a curious brow. "Oh?"

"Yeah, Silas. You met him briefly last night. Remember?"

Frankie closed her eyes as she thought but most of the night was just one big blur. Eventually, she opened her eyes again and shook her head.

"He was dressed as the lumberjack."

That tidbit of information was apparently what Frankie had needed because just as Jim said it, the image of a wildly attractive Native-American man who had been wearing plain blue jeans and a red plaid unbuttoned with nothing underneath popped into her brain.

"Now I remember," she said. "He was asking about me?"

Jim nodded. "He was. Asked if you were single."

Frankie hummed in response and took another satisfying sip of her coffee. "And you told him what?"

"That you were."

"Oh, wonderful." Frankie rolled her eyes. "I'm really not looking to date anyone right now."

Jim held a single hand up defensively. "That's all I told him. The ball is in your court."

"Good." Frankie thought for a moment. "He was cute though. What does he study?"

Jim laughed. "Thought you weren't interested."

"Interest and curiosity are different."

"He's an engineer. One of the smartest guys I know . . . besides Bones."

Frankie smirked. "Don't let Leonard hear you say that. Don't need to give him a bigger ego than he already has."

"Don't let Leonard hear you say what?" Leonard asked groggily as he stepped out of his bedroom in the same white t-shirt from the party and a pair of pyjama pants.

"That Jim's secretly in love with you." Frankie lied.

Leonard scoffed. "How sweet."

"Yeah, I was going to confess last night." Jim played along. "But then the whole Olivia thing came out and I figured I need to give that girl a fair chance. Congratulations on that again, buddy."

Leonard simply pushed past Jim to pour himself his own mug of coffee. "I started dating someone. I didn't cure cancer. Can everyone just drop it already?"

"I haven't even known you guys were official for 24 hours," Jim retorted. "Cut me some slack. I'm just happy for you."

It was obvious that it took every ounce of restraint that Leonard had to force a smile and, through gritted teeth, say, "Thanks."

At that moment, with all three roommates in various states of disarray and, in one way or another, suffering from the events from the night before, Frankie chuckled to herself. "Look at the three of us," she said. "This is not what I pictured when I dreamt about Starfleet Academy."

"Yeah, well, you know what they say." Leonard downed half of his mug in one go. "Don't meet your heroes and all that."

Jim narrowed his eyes. "Is that the saying that applies to this situation?"

Leonard thought for a moment before shrugging. "If you think really hard about it, it applies somehow."

"I'm incapable of thinking really hard right now," Frankie stated before remembering that she was supposed to start studying for an upcoming midterm that day. Then, she crossed her arms atop the table, buried her head in her arms, and groaned loudly.

Jim snickered. "I think she thought a little too hard."

"I have a midterm coming up to study for." Frankie peeked her head out and pouted. "And there is this one concept that I'm so lost on. I don't possess the brain capacity right now to figure it out."

Jim waved her concern away. "Figure it out tomorrow."

"Tomorrow is Monday and I have the first day of my ER clinical rotation. My midterm is on Friday. I have so much to do and so little time."

Jim, having played all of his cards and having no more ideas of his sleeve, shrugged and took another sip of coffee.

"What class is it for?" Leonard asked.

"It's for my species development class," Frankie answered. "We're covering obstetrics, which I did fine in during regular medical school, but the reproductive and pregnancy details of all the different alien species just keeps getting confused in my head."

Leonard smiled a little. "That class was easy."

"Oh, thank you for that." Frankie slightly snapped. "I'm glad it was a breeze for you, Mr. Robot Brain!"

"Ouch, nice burn." Jim teased. "Really got him with that one."

"I'm sorry." Frankie apologized immediately. It was then that the coffee began to churn in her stomach and bring the nausea back. How had she felt so fine when cleaning up and now felt like complete and utter trash? "I'm hungover and everything hurts and all I want to do is crawl into a hole and sleep forever."

Leonard waited until Frankie had stopped blabbing to continue. "If you had let me finish before attempting to insult me, I was going to offer to help you. That is, if you don't mind learning from Mr. Robot Brain."

Frankie's mood instantly improved. "You would help me? Like, actually?"

"Contrary to popular belief, I do sometimes do things for people that aren't myself."

"Oh, you're the best robot brain ever!" Frankie would have jumped up and hugged him if her head hadn't started pounding again. "We'll have to start later though." She rested her head in her arms again as a new symptom of dizziness blindsided her. "The world is spinning."

Leonard chuckled. "Remember the rule about no parties? Bet you two wish you had followed it now."

"Rules are meant to be broken." Jim clapped his friend on the shoulder before placing his empty mug into the sink.

"That's literally not true at all."

As Jim shuffled back out of the kitchen, Frankie looked up at Leonard and mouthed the words 'thank you.'

"You're welcome." Leonard actually didn't seem angry or inconvenienced by helping her at all. "Now take some more medication and get some sleep. We start later this afternoon."

"I can do that." Frankie moved to stand up but sat right back down when the dizziness caught her off guard. "Actually, maybe I'll do that in a little bit."


	14. Chapter 14

After waking up from her hangover nap, Frankie was pleasantly surprised to find out that the coffee, extra medication, and sleep had managed to rid her body of its headache and nausea. Sitting up in bed and stretching out her arms with a yawn, she looked over at her clock and noticed that it was almost 5 pm. Well, that was certainly longer than she had been planning on napping, but at least she felt refreshed and ready to study.

Then Frankie remembered that Leonard had offered to tutor her . . . and she had agreed. Both aspects of that arrangement were highly confusing considering Frankie never pegged Leonard as someone who would offer to tutor anyone and she never expected herself to accept his help, meaning the two would willingly be spending time together. No matter how much Frankie regretted it, however, she knew that her roommate was her only chance of getting a good grade on her midterm.

Still dressed in her sweats and sweater, Frankie gathered all of her study materials and made her way into the common area, where Leonard was sitting at the table, like always, working on his own stuff.

"You're finally awake," he said when he saw her emerge from her room, her arms full of textbooks, notebooks, and her PADD. "Feeling better?"

"I'm certainly not feeling worse," she replied as she took the seat across from Leonard and began to spread out her materials in the little space that his things weren't taking up. "You sure you're okay with tutoring me? It wasn't a momentary lapse of judgement or anything?"

Leonard shook his head as he closed his textbook and set it to the side. "If you really don't want my help, just tell me. I have a million other things I could be doing."

"No, no, I do want your help," Frankie told him, afraid that she had just talked her way out of a passing grade. "I'm just checking."

"I said I would do it, so I'll do it. I don't expect it to take too long anyway. You're plenty smart and capable enough to understand this stuff."

Frankie kept her head low as a smile crept onto her face. "I sure hope so." She continued to flip through her textbooks to find the material on obstetrics. "I'm fine with human pregnancy and birth, but it's all the other species and the differing anatomy and details that are throwing me. I can't keep it all straight."

"It's confusing at first," Leonard said as he took the textbook from Frankie and flipped through it. "But once you get it, you've got it."

Frankie sat back in her chair and folded her arms across her chest. "Confusing? This morning you said it was easy."

Leonard's eyes flickered up to look at Frankie. "It is easy. I was just trying to make you feel better."

Normally, Frankie would have been offended by something like that, but this time she just laughed. "Oh, well, thank you for that." She chuckled.

"Just trying to be nice."

"I'm just not used to it." Frankie leaned forward and watched as Leonard scanned the page before him, his eyes moving back and forth at breakneck speed, his slender fingers gripping the book firmly. "Is this Olivia's doing? Damn, she works fast."

Leonard placed the book down onto the table and sighed. "What is everyone's obsession with Olivia and me? Is it really so hard to believe that I'm with someone?"

"It's not that you're dating someone, it's the someone that you're dating." Frankie grabbed the book back. "But since you're going out of your way to help me when you don't have to, I promise I'll stop bringing up Olivia."

Leonard's shoulders relaxed and he was visibly relieved. "Thanks."

"Yeah." Frankie nodded. "Okay, so . . . where do we start?"

"Right here." Leonard pointed to the page that he had flipped to. "The basics. You need a solid foundation before we move onto the more complex topics."

Instantly, Frankie realized that Leonard had been lying when he had said that this wouldn't take long at all. "This is gonna be so much fun." She deadpanned.

Three hours later, Frankie's headache was coming back but this time, for a whole host of new reasons. She was definitely making progress, but certainly not in the way she had been hoping for or expecting. If Frankie had thought that Leonard was a hard ass when it came to working for him, it was nothing compared to learning from him.

Leonard's method of teaching was so rigorous and detail-orientated that he insisted on Frankie understanding and remembering every little detail of something before moving on. Usually, Frankie would familiarize herself with the general concept of something and fill in the specific details as she went along.

Needless to say, Frankie was burning out fast and Leonard was growing frustrated.

"Come on, you know this. We went over this ten minutes ago." Leonard half encouraged, half pressured. "Andorian reproduction is . . . ?"

"Complicated!" Frankie groaned and buried her face in her hands. "There are four sexes instead of two. Even you have to agree that that is unnecessarily complex."

"Well, considering it did cause many reproductive issues because all four sexes needed to be involved, yes. But that's not what we're talking about."

Closing her eyes and attempting to will her headache away, Frankie drew in a deep breath. "How do you do it?" she asked.

"Do what?" Leonard retorted, accepting the fact that they were taking a break.

"Fit so much knowledge in your head. Know everything," she said. "How do you know _everything_?"

Leonard scoffed. "I don't know everything."

"Are you sure?" Frankie cocked her head, trying to come up with an absurd question to ask him. "What's the worst basketball team in the USA?"

"Objectively or subjectively?"

"Just answer the question."

"The Atlanta Hawkes."

Frankie gasped. "Okay, I know that they're a little rusty, but they've got spirit."

Leonard laughed hard. "Spirit? They're garbage, objectively _and_ subjectively. And I'm allowed to say that because I'm from Georgia."

"From Georgia or not, you're wrong."

"What's your weird attachment to them? I thought you were from New York or whatever."

"I went to medical school in New York but I'm flattered nevertheless that you remembered something about me." Frankie joked. "But if you must know, I spent summers as a kid with my grandparents, who lived in Georgia. My grandfather was the biggest Hawkes fan ever. I used to watch the games with him all the time."

"I'm sorry that your grandfather had such bad taste in sports teams."

Frankie's jaw dropped from shock and amusement. "Okay, _Mr. I Know Everything About Everything_ , what's your favourite team?"

Leonard shrugged, certain that his answer was the right one. "I've been known to watch a Lakers game every once in a while."

"Oh, my God! Typical! Boring!" Frankie threw her head back. "Gag me with a spoon. They're such an obvious choice."

"They're an obvious choice because they're good."

"I stand corrected." Frankie grimaced. "You do not know everything."

"Oh, yeah? And you feel special for wasting your time on a team that's never going anywhere?"

"They've got character!"

"Having character isn't the point of the game! The point of the game is to score points, which the Hawkes fail at time and time again."

"What are you two shouting at each other about?" Jim stuck his head out from his bedroom, concern on his face. He was obviously worried that the two were fighting again.

Frankie waved him away. "We're fine, Jim. Don't worry about it."

Jim hesitated for a moment. "You sure?"

"We're talking about basketball," Leonard told him. "We're not going to kill each other."

"Well, that's still up for debate," Frankie slightly muttered. "Depends how much longer Leonard insists on sitting there and slandering the Atlanta Hawkes."

The concern washed from Jim's face in an instant. "Oh, the Hawkes are awful."

"Exactly!" Leonard threw his arms up into the air. "Thank you!"

"I refuse to sit here and endure these hateful lies." Frankie huffed. "I don't like them for their skills. It's just a part of my childhood. Watching the games was a special bonding moment for me and my grandfather."

The two men were silent for a moment. "Gross." Jim faked a gag. "Way to ruin a perfectly good sports debate. Goodbye."

As Jim retreated back into his room like a turtle into its shell, Frankie and Leonard chuckled lightly to themselves.

"I never expected you to be a basketball person." Leonard reached out and began flipping through textbook pages again, silently signalling that they should get back to work.

"I don't know if I would call myself a basketball person." Frankie shrugged. "I never played it or anything. Just watched it sometimes. What about you? Are you a 'basketball person' or do you just watch it?"

Leonard's mouth twitched into a smirk. "When I was a kid, I wanted to grow up to be a professional basketball player."

"No way!" Frankie didn't expect to hear that. "Are you telling me that you weren't always just a super nerdy science guy?"

"It obviously wasn't a realistic dream."

"I don't know. You have the height for it." Frankie lazily gestured to Leonard's tall and well-built body. "Were you any good?"

Leonard thought for a moment. "I was okay."

"Okay is good." Frankie picked up her PADD and turned it back on. "When I was a kid, I wanted to be a unicorn tamer, so I have no place to judge."

Leonard snorted. "A unicorn tamer?"

"I was really young, okay? Calm your amateur ball-playing ass down and let's get back to you making me smarter."

"I don't know if anyone possesses the skills for that task."

"Oh, haha." Frankie rolled her eyes. "How about this . . . if you can teach me enough for me to get an A on my midterm on Friday, I'll watch an entire Lakers game. If I don't get an A, you have to watch a Hawkes game."

Leonard seemed intrigued. "What if you get a bad grade on purpose?"

"Why would I do that? My grades in these classes literally determine my career and my entire future."

"Good point. Okay, deal."

"Good." Frankie clapped her hands before rubbing them together. "Okay, let's get back to work, shall we?"

Leonard nodded. "Andorian reproduction." He started. "As complex as it is, you have to get this."

No matter how skeptical Frankie had been at the beginning of the tutoring session, by the end, everything made a lot more sense to her. As much as she hated to admit it, Leonard was actually a really good teacher once she figured out how to learn from him. It was a learning curve, just like anything with him was.

"-and that's why the gestation period is longer!" Frankie slammed her pen down onto the table as if she had just scored the winning touchdown in the final moments of the Superbowl.

"Yes!" Leonard smiled wide. Whether his joy was from finally having managed to teach Frankie or the fact that she had learned in the first place, it was hard to tell. But either way, he was actually happy. "I told you that you were smart enough to get this!"

Sinking back into her chair, Frankie exhaled and relaxed. "I can't believe it actually makes sense now." She shook her head in disbelief. "You're a really good teacher."

"You might be the only person who thinks that." Leonard started to pack up. "But thank you."

"No, thank you." Frankie helped clear the clutter away from the table. "I owe you big time."

"You say that now, but just wait until you're eating your own words and watching a dreaded Lakers game."

Frankie smiled. "You actually think I'm gonna get an A?"

"No." He paused for effect. "I think you're gonna get an A+, but an A will do."

"I think you have more confidence in me than I have in myself."

"Well, at this point, I have bestowed as much knowledge unto you as possible. What you do with it is up to you."

Frankie snickered as she gathered her books back into her arms. "You just used the words 'bestowed' and 'unto'. You need to get some sleep."

"You're probably right." Leonard looked from his own study materials to his bedroom door. "Goodnight." He finally caved and headed for his room.

"Goodnight." Frankie watched as he disappeared out of sight and his bedroom door shut.

Since when were she and Leonard able to not only spend time alone for hours on end without trying to kill one another but also engage in casual conversation and, dare she say, have a good time together?

What was happening? 


	15. Chapter 15

Feet aching from rushing around non-stop, Frankie paused for a brief moment to grab a drink of water and catch her breath. So far, clinical in the ER had been the most exciting and most chaotic out of all of her rotations and it was only the first week. Every day had been filled with new experiences and more work than seemed possible to handle, and today was no different.

Half an hour earlier, the emergency room had received word that there had been an accident in one of the hangars and a shuttle had malfunctioned, causing a relatively minor explosion but injuring quite a few people nevertheless. Now, the staff was running around, waiting to receive the first wave of seriously wounded patients, most of whom were expected to be suffering from burns and shrapnel injuries.

"Not to make the situation worse than it already is, but it's looking like we're gonna need all hands on deck for this." Nurse Cassidy approached Frankie as she slipped on a trauma gown over her uniform. "You're probably gonna be staying late."

"Yeah, I assumed as much." Frankie nodded as she downed the last of her water and threw the disposable cup into the trash. "Have we called in help?"

Cassidy reached for a drink as well. "I just got off the phone with the clinic coordinator and he's sending down as many cadets with ER experience as possible. Hopefully, some other physicians in the hospital will lend a hand as well. This is going to be a long day."

"It can be as long as it wants if it means everyone makes it out the other side," Frankie said. "I'm not in the mood to lose any lives."

"Agreed."

Pushing her way out of the staff room, Frankie made a bee-line for the bay where the emergency vehicles would be pulling in and donned a gown over her uniform as well. She then retied her messy hair into a tight ponytail and put on a clean pair of gloves before waiting for the first trauma to arrive.

"Fancy seeing you here." A familiar southern drawl sounded from beside her.

Stepping to the side so Leonard could reach the gloves, Frankie gave a curt nod. "McCoy." She preferred to remain professional on the job and address him by his last name. "I see they called you in as well."

"They did." He struggled to get the tight pair of gloves over his large hands. "I mean, I was upstairs on one of the patient floors and would have helped anyway, but I did get a call."

"How long have you been here already?"

Leonard glanced down at his watch. "Five hours. You?"

"Eight. I was just about done with my shift when we got the call." Frankie sighed as the sirens could be heard in the distance. "Better buckle in. We're gonna be here a while longer."

"Yup."

Minutes later, the first of many emergency vehicles pulled up and Frankie and Leonard greeted the patient, who was a male with full-thickness burns. Based on his red uniform, Frankie reasoned that he was probably an engineer who had been working on the shuttle when it had exploded, which explained his severe injures.

Immediately, the patient was taken to an ER bed and subsequently surrounded by staff. Right then, Doctor Kathleen Hearst arrived and took charge of the trauma with Leonard, Frankie, and a series of nurses assisting.

Kathleen's first orders included supplemental oxygen to help the patient breathe, as much pain medication as was safe, and an IV for fluids to prevent shock and maintain blood pressure.

As the team worked quickly and seamlessly to save the engineer's life, Frankie barely even remembered processing any of the directions given to her; she just heard something and did it, as if her body was acting on its own.

"Let's get a prophylactic tetanus vaccine in here," Kathleen ordered. "Once we get the pain and vital signs under control, I want to start assessing the extent of these burns."

"I've got full-thickness over here," Frankie said, pointing to the spot on the patient's abdomen where all layers of skin had been burnt and the fat was exposed. "These all look like third-degree burns."

"I agree." Leonard concurred. "He's going to need serious debridement and probably surgery."

Kathleen nodded as one of the nurses arrived with the tetanus vaccine that she had asked for. "Good thinking, you two." Kathleen gave the vaccine to the patient, who was so out of it by then that he didn't even notice.

By then, almost every bed in the emergency room was taken up by victims of the accident and every staff member was working on at least one case, if not multiple at once. Just as Kathleen's patient was about to be sent up for surgery, another patient came through the doors with a sharp piece of metal shrapnel protruding from her chest and was placed in the final bed.

"McCoy, Warren, you guys take that patient while I take this guy up to surgery," Kathleen instructed.

Without even a second of hesitation, Frankie and Leonard stepped away from the burn victim, changed their gloves, and stepped over to the female patient who was screaming bloody murder while the nurses tried to calm her down.

"You wanna take the lead?" Leonard offered as they stepped up to opposite sides of the bed.

"Nah, you go ahead." Frankie insisted. "You're the senior cadet here anyway."

"Sounds good." Leonard glanced over at the woman's vital signs and created a plan of action in his head, his forehead wrinkling as he thought.

In the meantime, Frankie worked on calming the woman down, who was still in agony while she waited for the initial dose of pain medication to kick in. "You're going to be okay," Frankie assured. "Just try to take deep breaths and relax."

"Okay, first thing's first, we need to find out if this shrapnel has penetrated any major organs or arteries." Leonard pulled out a medical PADD and held it over the woman's abdomen. Instantly, the PADD scanned for internal injuries, and sure enough, the woman's liver had been punctured. "There's damage to the liver but other than that, it looks good."

Turning to one of the nurses, Frankie told her to phone up to the surgical floor and inform them that they had a patient who was going to need to have their liver repaired.

"In the meantime, we should make sure she doesn't have any other injuries," Frankie said, having to speak slightly louder in order to be heard over the woman's screams.

The screams, which in the beginning had been random, ear-piercing screeches were now identifiable words that formed cohesive sentences.

"That idiot! I'm going to kill him!" The woman screamed at the top of her lungs, turning heads throughout the entire ER. "I told him there was a problem with the shuttle! No one should have been near it!"

"Ma'am, you need to calm down." Frankie tried to keep her cool, but her calm tone was doing nothing to deescalate the situation. The woman, who was probably suffering from shock on top of her anger, was inconsolable.

The woman shook her head. "No, you don't understand! All of this could have been avoided! No one listened to me!"

Looking up at Leonard, Frankie shrugged. "Maybe a sedative to calm her down?"

Leonard opened his mouth to respond, but before he could get a single word out, the woman freaked out. "A sedative?!" She growled, enraged. "I'm not crazy!"

"We never said you were." Leonard looked down at the patient that he was towering over top of. "You're in shock right now. The sedative is to help you relax."

"I don't need to relax! Everyone needs to listen to me!"

What happened next, no one could have possibly predicted. After an attempt to get out of bed, which Frankie stopped, the woman let out a blood-curdling howl as she grabbed hold of the shrapnel in her stomach and yanked it out, insisting that she was fine and that she needed to leave.

"Oh, my God!" Frankie held pressure over the wound with her hands as blood began to pour out at a rather alarming rate. "Little help over here!"

Somehow, the woman still had some fight left in her. "Get off of me!" She lashed out, clawing at Frankie's face and nearly jabbing her in the eye with her fingernail.

"Someone restrain her!" Frankie ducked her head, still applying pressure to the wound as the woman assaulted her. No matter how many punches and open-palmed slaps the woman landed, Frankie stayed put.

Reaching across the bed at record speed, Leonard wrapped his large hands around the woman's wrists and held her arms away from Frankie until the nurses arrived with the restraints. As soon as the patient had been restrained, for the safety of herself and others, Frankie jumped back.

As much as Frankie wanted to rub the sore spot on her jaw where the woman had punched her pretty hard, she couldn't because her hands were covered in blood. In fact, she had blood all over herself. Before she could assess her own injuries, she needed to get cleaned up.

"You go," Leonard told her as if he had read her mind and dismissed her before she could ask to leave. "I'll handle the rest."

"Thanks." Frankie exhaled.

Taking off her gloves and gown, Frankie disposed of them in the proper receptacle before leaving the bustling ER and locating the nearest bathroom. There, she cleaned up the best she could in the sink, leaving the rest for when she got back to her room and could take an actual shower. Thankfully, the gown had taken most of the splatter damage, so Frankie only had a few spots on her face and neck that needed to be cleaned.

As the adrenaline of the intense situation began to fade away, Frankie realized just how tired she actually was. The feeling of the warm water on her face was almost enough to lull her to sleep right there in the bathroom. Knowing that she had a few hours left at least before the ER would be rid of all of the accident victims, Frankie turned on the cold water tap and splashed herself with the ice-cold liquid. Just as she had hoped, she felt more awake.

Hearing the bathroom door open, Frankie perked up, expecting it to just be another staff member who needed to use the bathroom. It wasn't.

"You okay?" Leonard strolled into the ladies' bathroom as if he did it every day and it was no big deal.

Frankie blinked a few times. "I might have been squinting when I came in here to keep the blood from dripping into my eye but I'm pretty sure this is the women's bathroom."

"It is," Leonard stated. "I just wanted to make sure you're okay."

"I'm fine." Frankie turned off the sink tap and reached for some paper towel to dry her hands with. "How's the patient? Calmed down, I hope."

Leonard shrugged. "Once the sedative kicked in, she was quiet as a mouse. But she's surgery's problem now."

Frankie chuckled. "Thank God for that."

"Just when you think it can't get any weirder . . ." Leonard trailed off, his eyes glued to Frankie. Just as she was about to ask if she had something on her face, he spoke again. "You're bleeding."

"Am I?" Frankie turned to look in the mirror. Sure enough, she had a thin line of bright red blood across her cheek. Swiping her thumb across it to make sure it wasn't some of the patient's blood that she had missed, she realized that the woman had caught her cheek with her nails and left a shallow cut. "Oh, that's nice."

"It doesn't look too bad." Leonard took a step closer to get a better look.

"It's not." Frankie winced slightly as she palpated the skin above her jaw and cheekbone. "I can barely feel it in comparison to the rest of my face. That woman has a wicked right hook."

Without warning, Leonard took Frankie's face into his hands and began to observe her face like she was a slide under a microscope. "I'm sorry I didn't stop her sooner." He apologized. "Does this hurt?" He applied light pressure to her cheekbone, just under her left eye.

Frankie winced. "Yes."

"She landed quite a few good hits to your head. You should probably get checked out, just to be safe."

Frankie scoffed, trying her best not to focus on the pad of his thumb that was still resting on her cheek. "I don't think it's that serious."

"Better to be safe than sorry."

"I don't work for you any longer, Doctor McCoy. I don't need to follow your orders anymore." She reminded him with a cheeky grin. "But if it'll put your mind at ease, I'll get checked over after my shift."

"Good." Leonard realized he was still holding Frankie's face and pulled back at once. "Let's get back to work then, shall we?"

"Sounds good." Frankie followed him out of the bathroom and together, the two of them worked at assessing, treating, and assisting with the remaining patients from the shuttle explosion.

For the remainder of the shift, Frankie was surprised that she had completely forgotten about the pain in her face; that, and the fact that she and Leonard worked well together. When a belligerent patient wasn't throwing potshots at one of them, they operated like a well-oiled machine, as if they had been working together for years.

Anticipating each other's needs before they even knew they needed them—which Frankie was sure must have been attributed to the fact that they lived together in such close quarters and spent time together more often than they probably would have liked—the two of them got through the remaining patients in an impressive two hours.

Once the final patient had been sent up to a room on one of the higher floors of the hospital, the staff in the ER let out a collective sigh of relief. "Good work, everyone!" Kathleen announced. "If you're due to go home, I'd recommend getting out of here while you still have the chance."

"That's my cue." Frankie smiled at Nurse Cassidy, who she had been tidying beds with. "Are you off now?"

Cassidy's face flushed with relief. "Yes, thank goodness."

After finishing tucking in the sheets of the final bed, Frankie headed for the staff room where she could collect her things. She hadn't forgotten about the fact that she was supposed to get checked out, but at that moment, the thought of staying one minute longer in the hospital was enough to drive her mad. All she wanted was a hot shower and a good night's rest.

Just as Frankie was pulling her coat on, Kathleen entered the staff room and began to pour herself a cup of coffee from the communal pot. "You think fast on your feet, Warren." She addressed Frankie. "Did you specialize in emergency medicine before joining Starfleet?"

"No, I didn't." Frankie shook her head. "I didn't specialize in anything, really. Starfleet was always the plan, so as soon as I passed my boards and finished my residency, I applied."

"Well, you could have fooled me." Kathleen ripped open a packet of sugar and poured it into her coffee. "You should consider it. Starfleet emergency medicine is a little different than regular emergency medicine, but it isn't any less thrilling, as you've just witnessed."

Frankie tucked that tidbit of advice into the back of her brain for later. "Did you specialize in emergency medicine?" She asked.

"Once upon a time, yes, I did," Kathleen answered. "Now I spend most of my time conducting research and doing boring administration tasks. A few patients on my service here and there and my schedule is completely packed."

"Packed schedule." Frankie started for the door. "I hear that."

Kathleen chuckled softly before taking a sip of her coffee. "Well, anyway, consider it. I think you'd make an excellent emergency medicine doctor for Starfleet."

"I will, thank you." Frankie waved before bidding the woman goodnight.

As much as Frankie would have liked to say that Doctor Hearst's interest in her career had sparked some sort of excitement in her, she was so exhausted that the entire conversation faded into the background as soon as she stepped out of the hospital and into the cool night air.

Drawing in a deep breath, Frankie relished in the fact that she was heading back to her room. The thought of studying for her upcoming midterm flashed through her mind briefly, but she doubted she had enough energy left to make it to her bed, let alone open a textbook and do any reading.

Hearing a pair of heavy footsteps behind her on the sidewalk, Frankie looked back over her shoulder and noticed that Leonard was strolling a few paces behind her.

"You following me or something?" She teased.

Leonard smirked. "No, I'm making sure you don't topple over from a head injury since I know for a fact that you didn't get checked out like you said you would."

"You caught me." Frankie slowed a little to wait for him to catch up. "I promise I'll go first thing in the morning. Frankly, I'm just too tired right now to care if I pass away in my sleep from a brain bleed."

Leonard's face scrunched up. "That's morbid."

"Life's morbid." Frankie tipped her head back and stared up at the night sky and the stars that speckled it. "One shuttle explosion and fifteen people almost died . . . some of them still might. Really makes you wonder."

"Wonder about what?" Leonard side-eyed Frankie.

"What's the point of it all?" She said, still staring straight up as she walked. "You think that's why the human race started exploring space? Because someone finally realized that there was something bigger than all of us and they wanted to see if they could find it?"

Leonard scoffed. "I don't know if you're sudden existential crisis is from exhaustion or your brain bleed but either way, I'm too tired myself to know the answer to that."

"Don't you ever think about stuff like that?"

"No. I've got enough problems on Earth to worry about, nevermind all the problems waiting in space. Besides, space is disease and danger wrapped in darkness and silence."

Frankie let out a laugh. "Now who's the one having the crisis?"

"It's not a crisis. It's the truth."

"I think more often than not, those are one and the same."

"You might be right."

"That's been known to happen on occasion."

Silence fell over the two for the rest of the walk to the building and up to their room. As soon as Frankie punched in the code for the door and they stepped inside, they both dropped their belongings to the floor. In unison, they eyed the kitchen, then the bathroom, and shook their heads.

"Too tired for food," Leonard grumbled.

Frankie yawned. "Too tired for a shower."

Then, at the same time, they turned toward their rooms without another word and disappeared behind closed doors; both doctors collapsing onto their beds and falling asleep seconds after their heads hit the pillows. 


	16. Chapter 16

Walking out of her final lecture for the day, Frankie pulled her PADD out of her bag and turned it on, her heart pounding in her chest. She had taken her dreaded midterm that morning and the results were supposed to be online by the end of the day; and as much as she wanted to know what she had gotten and get it over and done with, her nerves skyrocketed every time she checked the online portal.

As soon as she saw the golden bell icon in the corner of her screen, indicating that she had a notification, she felt her blood run cold. Stepping to the side in order to get out of the way of the bustling foot traffic, she drew in a deep breath and pressed the icon with her finger. Seconds later, her midterm grade popped up.

Frankie read the results once and then had to re-read them because she hadn't been able to actually comprehend them the first time. An A+.

"No fucking way." Frankie refreshed the page again to make sure there wasn't some kind of mistake, but when the page popped back up again, her grade was still the same.

Frankie's nerves immediately vanished and she was overcome with a wonderful feeling of relief. After she had taken the midterm, she hadn't felt awful about it, but she certainly hadn't felt like she had done an A+ job. Apparently, however, she knew more than she thought she did; and as much as she hated to admit it, she most likely owed most of that to Leonard.

Frankie's joy wavered a little when she realized that she would now have to watch a Lakers game as part of her deal with Leonard, but in all honestly, she would watch a thousand Lakers games if it meant she could pass all her courses with excellent grades.

Tucking her PADD away, Frankie started toward the library where she was supposed to meet Uhura, Wade, and Maggie. Now, she had a little more pep in her step.

As soon as she strolled into the library and spotted her friends sitting at one of the large, round tables, they could tell something was up by the huge grin on her face.

"What's got you in such a good mood?" Uhura asked.

Frankie couldn't stop smiling even as she sat down. "I just got my grade back from my midterm this morning. I nailed it. A+."

Uhura, Wade, and Maggie cheered, overjoyed for their friend. "Congrats!" Maggie pulled her wallet out of her bag and looked over her shoulder at the library coffee shop, which currently didn't have a long line. "Coffee on me to celebrate. Same orders as usual?"

When everyone nodded, indicating that they wanted their regular order, Maggie took off to buy the celebratory drinks.

"Oh, I feel so relieved." Frankie exhaled slowly and practically melted into her chair. "Leonard is a surprisingly good teacher."

Wade cocked an eyebrow. "You got Doctor Crankypants to tutor you?"

"He offered." Frankie shrugged. "And honestly, I'm glad he did. I would not have done as well as I did without his help."

Uhura smirked as she pulled her study materials out of her bag. "Your opinion of him has certainly changed quite a bit since you two first met each other. Remember when you guys hated each other's guts?"

"I do. Vividly." Frankie nodded. "But enough about my relationship and more about Wade and Maggie's."

Wade rolled his eyes. He knew this was coming, considering this was the first group hangout since he and Maggie had gotten together at the Halloween party. "Maggie and I are doing just fine, thank you," he said.

"I should hope so, considering how much you two were sucking face at the party." Uhura laughed. "But in all seriousness, you guys are so cute together. I'm glad you finally started dating."

Wade smiled, obviously happy about how things had turned out. "Now I've just got to take her on a real first date and it's official. Any ideas?"

Frankie and Uhura thought for a moment, trying to comb through Maggie's interests and come up with something that would suit her.

"This is kind of lame, but maybe you could take her to see some sort of historical movie or something?" Uhura suggested. "She's into all of that history stuff."

Wade mulled over the idea for a few moments. "Not a bad idea. I'll keep it in mind. Frankie? Anything else?"

"I saw a flyer on the hospital bulletin board the other day that some really well-known space history professor is doing a talk on campus sometime in the next week. Can't remember the exact details, but I can take a picture of the flyer and send it to you the next time I'm at the hospital," she said. "Take her to that and then do dinner after."

Wade's face lit up. That was the one. "That's brilliant!" he exclaimed before noticing Maggie was on her way back and settled down a little. "Thank you."

Frankie gave a 'you're welcome' nod as Maggie returned to the table and handed out the various coffees. "I hope I remembered everything right." Maggie sat back down and took a sip of her soy latte. "That barista always makes me feel like I'm keeping her from doing something super important, like saving the world. It's unnerving."

"I think that's just her face." Frankie glanced over to the barista who was often working when she and her friends were in the library. Her face was constantly plastered with a look of disgruntled indifference, but she did make really good coffee, so it was worth it.

With a collective set of hushed chuckles, the group got started on whatever academy work they had brought and talked about what had happened during the week.

Frankie spent a large portion of the session telling everyone about working in the ER during the shuttle explosion, for which she still held a physical reminder in the form of the scratch on her cheek. By then, the entire campus had heard about the explosion and everyone was talking about it. It was, without a doubt, the biggest thing to happen in a long time.

Uhura talked intermittently about her various communications courses and Wade and Maggie mostly talked about how their first week together was going—not by their choice, of course; Frankie and Uhura just kept pushing to know more.

By the time the studying had been done and the coffees had been drunk, the sun was starting to set, leaving a beautiful sunset in the sky.

"Well, we better get back." Wade started to pack up his things and Maggie followed suit. "We had plans to watch a movie tonight."

"That's cute," Uhura commented. "Ugh, I wish I had a relationship like you guys have. I hope you're okay with me living vicariously through you."

Maggie chuckled. "I don't think we have much of a choice, do we?"

"Nope, but I thought I'd be polite and ask anyway."

With that, the new couple took off hand-in-hand, leaving Uhura and Frankie at the library table. "Gosh, they really are such a good couple." Frankie watched them leave. "I'm so glad they got together. They're the best thing to come out of the whole roommate mix-up."

"Agreed." Uhura began to gather her things as well, but slowly and casually, indicating that she wasn't in a rush to leave.

"Speaking of couples." Frankie turned to her friend. "How are things going with you and Commander Spock?"

Uhura's eyes grew wide, afraid that someone might have overheard despite the fact that they and the barista were the only patrons in sight. "Shh!" she hushed.

"No one is even here to hear us." Frankie rolled her eyes playfully. "Come on, it's exciting! You already confided in me. You can't take it back now."

"If you must know, things are fine," Uhura stated.

"Just fine?"

Uhura shrugged. "What do you want me to say? He is my Commander. I am his student. Things can't really go any farther than that."

"If you say so." Frankie didn't want to push too hard on the subject. "But if you genuinely like him, I think you should tell him. You never know. Maybe things will work out."

"That sounds like an outrageously stupid idea." Uhura snickered anyway. "Can you imagine? Confessing your love for a superior? What a mess."

"Well, some of us only get messes. We can't all be as happy as Wade and Maggie."

"I suppose not. Bummer."

"Bummer indeed."

Just then, Frankie's PADD lit up with a notification that the Lakers game was supposed to start in thirty minutes. As much as she would rather do literally anything else, a deal was a deal.

"You're watching basketball?" Uhura read the notification over Frankie's shoulder. "Since when are you a basketball person?"

"I'm not," Frankie told her. "I made a deal with someone that I've lost."

Uhura's face scrunched with confusion and it was clear that she had about twenty follow-up questions. Standing up, she gestured for Frankie to follow her.

"So who did you make this weird deal with?"

"Leonard."

That only seemed to cause more confusion. "I'm so lost."

"When Leonard was tutoring me we got to talking about basketball. Long story short, he likes the Lakers, I like the Hawkes, so a deal was made: if he could teach me enough for me to get an A on my midterm, I would watch a Lakers game."

"And you got an A+." Uhura finally understood. "I see. Well, in the grand scheme of things, there are a lot worse punishments for losing. And I guess not getting an A would have sucked as well."

Frankie nodded in agreement. "It's Friday night. I'm gonna grab a drink and some food and kick back. Despite the fact that I don't like the Lakers, at least I'll get to forget about school for a little while."

With that, Frankie and Uhura said goodnight to one another and went their separate ways. A short five-minute walk later, Frankie was entering her building and riding the elevator up to her floor.

Since it was Friday night, Frankie wasn't surprised that neither Jim nor Leonard were home. Jim was probably out with some girl—or five—and Leonard was probably at the hospital.

Kicking off her shoes, Frankie headed straight for the kitchen and grabbed a beer out of the fridge, which Jim always kept stocked. Then, in the spirit of watching a sports game, she used the replicator to whip up a steaming plate of nachos.

Beer and nachos. The dinner of champions.

Settling onto the couch, Frankie turned on the TV and flipped to the channel that would be broadcasting the game. Then, all there was left for her to do was sit back, relax, and try to enjoy herself.

The Lakers were playing the Chicago Bulls, which was a team that Frankie didn't necessarily care for either; but to be fair, she didn't really care for any basketball team. The only reason she was attached to the Hawkes was because of the connection she had with her grandfather when they watched the games. Like she had said over and over again, she wasn't a basketball person.

However, for not being a basketball person, she found herself getting weirdly into the game by the end of the first half. The Lakers were up by ten points and Frankie was cheering for the Bulls to make a comeback just so she could shove it in Leonard's face that his favourite team lost.

During the halftime break, Frankie got up to grab another beer. Just as she was opening the fridge, the front door opened and Leonard walked in, still in his uniform from the hospital.

"You look like you could use a drink." Frankie greeted, pulling two beers out of the fridge.

"I could use ten drinks." Leonard ran his hands over his face, clearly stressed. "But I'll start with one. Thanks."

"Long day?" Frankie slid the bottle across the counter toward him.

" _So long_." He sighed, but then suddenly, his spirits seemed to lift for a brief second. "So, your midterm was today, right? How did it go?"

With a mixture of defeat and triumph on her face, Frankie gestured to the television. "The Lakers are up by ten and I'm not happy about it," she said. "But I got an A+."

Leonard grinned before taking a sip of his drink. "See? What did I tell you? A+ for sure. Never doubted you for a second."

Frankie felt a warmth of pride spread inside of her. "I couldn't have done it without you."

"Oh, sure you could've. I'm just glad I could help though."

"Okay, well, we'll just have to agree to disagree I guess." She started back toward the couch. "Wanna watch with me? You can rub it in my face that the Lakers are winning. I'm sure that'll cheer you up after your long day."

Leonard took another sip of his drink. "As much as spending the night endlessly tormenting you does sound fun, I've got plans with Olivia."

Frankie opened her mouth to say something about the odd couple, but before she did, she remembered that she had promised not to make any more comments about them. "What are you guys doing?" She decided to act interested instead.

"I have no idea," he answered. "She has a surprise planned." His face portrayed the fact that he was in no way, shape, or form excited for a surprise. Frankie had never pegged him as a surprise-loving kind of guy anyway.

"That's both intriguing and concerning," she said. "Well, have fun. I'll just be here, suffering for my brilliance."

"You are such a drama queen."

"You say that as if I don't already know."

As the second half of the game began, Leonard disappeared into his room, presumably to get changed for his evening with Olivia. Sure enough, he emerged ten minutes later in a pair of jeans, a grey t-shirt, and a leather jacket.

Glancing over the back of the couch, Frankie flashed a thumbs-up. "Looking good, Doctor," she said, just as one of the players on the Bulls' team made a three-point shot. "Oh, take that, Lakers!"

"Oh, come on!" Leonard stepped closer to the TV. "What kind of defence was that?"

"Lakers aren't looking so good now, are they?" Frankie quipped.

"You can't trash-talk until they're losing." Leonard dropped down onto the couch next to Frankie and grabbed a nacho from her plate.

Frankie chuckled to herself as he made himself at home. "Thought you had a surprise date to get to?"

"Ten minutes." He sat leaning forward with his elbows resting on his knees, indicating that he wasn't staying long.

Frankie didn't say a word. Instead, she sat back with her beer and continued to watch the game. Not three minutes later, the Bulls made another basket, making the difference in scores only five points now.

"I don't remember getting this invested when I used to watch as a kid," Frankie said as the Lakers got another two points and she felt an unexplainable anger build inside of her. "Am I supposed to feel this emotionally involved?"

"It's addicting, isn't it?" Leonard grabbed another nacho.

"It is." Frankie chuckled. "What if Olivia's surprise date is dinner? You're going to ruin your appetite."

Just despite Frankie, Leonard grabbed two more nachos. "I haven't eaten since this morning. Nothing can ruin my appetite. I'm starving."

"Then maybe you should go see Olivia so she can take you to dinner or whatever!" Frankie shoved Leonard's thigh with her foot. "There will be plenty of basketball games."

"I know you're right." Leonard sighed. "But if I'm being honest, I'm so exhausted from today and drinking beer and watching a game sounds like the perfect Friday night."

"Well, sorry, but this is my perfect Friday night and you're not invited." Frankie kicked at him again. "Go to your girlfriend before she shows up and takes my head off for making you late."

Pulling his personal communicator out of his pocket, Leonard noticed that he had missed a few texts from Olivia. "Alright, alright, I'm leaving." He stood up from the couch. "Let me know if the Lakers win so I can use it against you at some point."

"Will do." Frankie waved lazily over her shoulder. "Have fun."

Hearing the door open and close again, Frankie found herself alone in the room once more, and although she could absolutely turn off the game and watch anything else without anyone knowing, she didn't. Instead, Frankie sat through the remainder of the game, cheering and booing the entire time. In the end, the Lakers had indeed won, but only by three points.

Frankie decided that unless Leonard specifically asked, she would not share the results of the game with him. The last thing she needed was for him to be right about yet another thing.

Once the game was over, Frankie switched to a movie channel and mindlessly watched whatever was playing. She grabbed another beer, finished off the nachos, and enjoyed spending a Friday night by herself without worrying about schoolwork or a shift in the ER.

Around 10:30 pm, the front door opened once more. Frankie didn't get up from her comfortable position sprawled out on the couch, however. It was probably either Jim or Leonard coming home, and even if it wasn't, she didn't exactly have the energy or possess the sober capacity to fight off an intruder. She was enjoying a subtle buzz.

Seconds later, a female voice came from the kitchen; it was Olivia. Frankie was surprised that Leonard had actually brought her back to the room considering he seemed to want to keep the relationship as on the down-low as possible. In addition, he was breaking his own rule of no guests past 10 pm.

"Who won?" Was the first thing that he asked.

Frankie let out a groan. "I think you know who won. And fuck you and your perfect little basketball team with all their skills and shit." Frankie popped her head over the back of the couch. "Hey, Olivia." She waved.

"Hi, Frankie." Olivia smiled.

Leonard laughed and clapped his hands together. "I told you."

"Yeah, yeah." Frankie stuck her tongue out at him.

"Told her what?" Olivia inquired, confused about what was going on.

"We just had a deal involving some basketball teams and Frankie is upset that she was wrong," Leonard explained.

"I stand by what I said about the Lakers and the Hawkes." Frankie insisted.

Olivia giggled, amused by the banter. "I didn't know you were a basketball person, Frankie."

"I'm not," Frankie said at the same time that Leonard said, "She's not."

"Oh." Olivia nodded before changing the subject. "Well, what are you watching now?"

Turning back to the TV, Frankie watched it for a few seconds before shrugging. "I'm honestly not sure. I think it's one of those cheesy Hallmark movies. I'm not really paying attention."

"I love Hallmark movies." Olivia smiled and made her way over to the living room, giving Frankie a better look at her beautiful dress and uncomfortable-looking heels. She had really gone all out for their surprise date. "They just always make me feel so happy."

Taking off her heels, Olivia sat down on the opposite side of the couch with her feet tucked underneath herself. Apparently, she was going to watch the rest of the movie with Frankie.

"So what did you guys do tonight?" Frankie made small-talk.

"We went out for dinner and then took a walk under the stars," Olivia answered, the smile on her face indicating that she was very proud of what she had planned. "Very romantic."

Frankie couldn't disagree. That _did_ sound very romantic. "That sounds like a lovely evening," she said, noticing that Leonard didn't seem too comfortable having his relationship discussed in the open.

"Come watch, Len." Olivia held her hand out for Leonard, encouraging him to join them. Frankie blinked at the odd nickname but didn't mention it.

Slipping his leather jacket off, Leonard settled himself between Frankie and Olivia, but he was definitely closer to Olivia's side of the couch. Slowly, he wrapped his arm around her and she leaned into him.

Frankie noticed that he didn't look even half as comfortable as he had when he had been watching the game with her earlier, but she supposed it would take him a while to get used to being open with Olivia in front of her and Jim.

Frankie also guessed that watching a Hallmark movie with his roommate wasn't exactly what Leonard had had in mind when he had brought his girlfriend back to his room.

Sitting up, Frankie moved to grab her empty beer bottle. "I'll let you guys spend some time alone." She offered and she could actually see Leonard physically relax.

"Oh, no." Olivia protested. "No, stay and watch with us."

"No, really, it's okay." Frankie insisted. "I should probably get some sleep anyway. I've got quite a lot of school stuff to work on tomorrow."

"Awh, well, if you're sure."

"I'm sure." Frankie stood up and headed into the kitchen to throw her bottle into the recycling. "You two have a good rest of the night."

As Frankie was heading to her bedroom with her bag from earlier in hand, Leonard looked back at her and mouthed 'thank you.' Frankie gave a curt nod of the head in response before excusing herself to her room.

Even though she hadn't necessarily been tired before, Frankie found that the sight of her warm and comfortable bed was too inviting to refuse. Changing into a sleep t-shirt, Frankie grabbed her PADD from her bag, turned off the lights, and climbed into bed.

Turning on the PADD, which brightly illuminated her face in the pitch-black room, she saw she had a missed message from Leonard that he had sent while on his date with Olivia.

**Leonard: _Just checked the score of the game. Lakers still winning! Ha!_**


	17. Chapter 17

Flipping to the next page of her textbook, which was the beginning of the next chapter, Frankie gave her eyes a break and blinked a few times, just then realizing how long she had gone without blinking and how dry her eyes were.

Glancing across the table, she watched as Leonard's eyes flicked back and forth across the page before himself, so focused on what he was reading that he didn't even notice her staring. She then sat back and looked around the library, taking note of how empty it had gotten since the last time she had come up from her textbook for air. Including her and Leonard, there were only about ten people remaining, most of whom were sitting by themselves in secluded areas of the library.

Returning her gaze to her book, Frankie let out an exasperated sigh. "Hey, how important do you think it is that I know the normal ranges of a tribble's arterial blood gasses?" she whispered, not wanting to disturb the other patrons.

Barely looking up from what he was reading, Leonard smirked ever-so-slightly. "Considering most medical research is conducted on tribbles, I'd say pretty important."

"Okay, let me rephrase. How important do you think it is that I know the normal ranges of a tribble's arterial blood gasses _right now?_ "

"I take it you're hinting at the fact that you're done for tonight?"

Frankie nodded and closed her textbook. "My brain hurts."

"Well, I'm gonna fit in a few more chapters I think," Leonard said, always one to push himself too far. "You can head back without me though."

"No, it's okay, I'll stay." Frankie made herself comfortable on the couch-like library seat. "I promise I won't bother you," she added before he had the chance to say it.

Shrugging his shoulders, clearly not caring one way or the other, Leonard went back to his work. Frankie, on the other hand, pulled out her PADD and some headphones and listened to some music while she checked a few of the social media sites that she always told herself she would stop wasting time on but never did.

Mostly, Frankie used social media to keep up-to-date on the people back home, like extended family and people she went to school with. One of her cousins had just gotten married, so Frankie's timeline was jam-packed with wedding photos; all of which were utterly beautiful.

Every time she saw one of the photos, she couldn't help but evaluate her own life; she was closer to 30 than 20 and had never had a long-term relationship that was heading anywhere close to the direction of marriage. Frankie usually attributed this to the fact that she was focused on her schooling and career, but in reality, wouldn't that always be the case? Surely Frankie couldn't use that excuse forever, or else she'd die alone. Granted, she'd hopefully be very accomplished in the Starfleet medical field, but she'd be alone nevertheless.

"What are you thinking about?"

Having barely heard Leonard over her music, Frankie snapped out of her personal crisis and popped an earbud out. She then noticed that Leonard was staring at her, and judging by the confused look on his face, he had been doing so for a while and had caught her gazing out into nothingness while contemplating the inevitable loneliness of her life.

"What?" she asked.

Leonard cocked a brow. "You've got that look on your face that you get when you're thinking too hard."

"I do not have a look like that."

He scoffed. "Yes, you do. You just did it. What were you thinking about?"

Pausing her music, Frankie narrowed her eyes at him. "Why were you watching me instead of reading? Hmm?"

"Because you are incredibly distracting."

"I was being completely silent."

"That's beside the point." He ignored that fact. "Are you going to tell me?"

Rolling her eyes, Frankie finally caved. "Not that this is any of your business, but I was thinking about dying alone, if you must know."

Leonard seemed a little taken aback by that. "That's dark."

"Yeah, now you know why I would have preferred to keep that to myself." She flipped her PADD around to show Leonard one of her cousin's wedding photos. "My cousin just got married. Just makes you think, you know?"

Out of politeness, Leonard looked at the photo for an adequate amount of time before nodding. "Well, take it from me . . . marriage isn't all it's cracked up to be."

"But surely it's not as bad as being alone forever?"

Leonard shrugged. "I'd never do it again."

"Really?" That piqued Frankie's interest. She opened her mouth to ask a follow-up question but stopped herself when she realized that it probably wasn't appropriate. Sure, she and Leonard were what some people might call 'friends' now, but they were nowhere near as close as he was with Jim. Mostly, they lived together, studied together sometimes, and hung out in the same social circle.

Leonard noticed that she was holding something back. "You want to say something, don't you?"

Frankie nodded slowly. "I do but I don't think we're at that point yet."

"Well, there's only one way to get there, I suppose." He sighed, accepting his fate. "Bite the bullet. What is it?"

"Are you sure?"

"No, but spit it out anyway."

Frankie snickered softly. "Okay, well . . . if you're not interested in marriage, then what's the point of being with Olivia?"

Leonard looked back at Frankie like she had just asked the dumbest question ever. "Just because I don't want to get married again doesn't mean I want to be alone for the rest of my life."

"I get that, but isn't the point of being in a relationship to find someone who you'll eventually spend every day with?"

"Not necessarily," he said, waiting for the confused look to fade from Frankie's face. It never did. "You'll understand eventually."

"Oh, you're so gross when you speak all wise and shit." Frankie groaned. "Just explain it to me."

Leonard thought for a moment before shaking his head. "I can't. You just have to experience it for yourself."

"Boring!"

"You are such a child."

Frankie laughed, earning a few looks from the other cadets in the library. "I know."

"It's no fun insulting you when you agree."

"I know."

Leonard just shook his head again. "Well, if it makes you feel better, I don't think you'll ever have to worry about dying alone."

Frankie perked at that. "Oh? Is there an arranged marriage no one has told me about yet? I sure hope he's as handsome as Jim and has your intelligence."

"All I'm trying to say is that you'll find someone."

"Well, it seems that some people find me intolerable," she said. "Don't believe me? Ask your past self. Man, did you hate my guts."

Leonard tried to act annoyed, but a muffled chuckle escaped anyway. "Yeah, I'm getting real close to that point again."

"That's what I'm talking about." Frankie grinned. "Friendly banter is so much more fun than pure, unadulterated rage, wouldn't you agree?"

"Who said I was being friendly?"

"Well, you haven't clenched your fists or turned red yet, so you're not as angry as I know you can be," she teased even more just for the hell of it. By then, she knew roughly where her boundaries with Leonard lay. "Maybe I should leave a mug out or something?"

"Why do I agree to study with you?" He groaned.

"Because unlike Jim, I actually study . . . _sometimes_ ," she answered. "And, as you said, you don't want to be alone for the rest of your life."

"That's not exactly what I meant."

"Same difference."

Accepting the fact that any and all studying for the day was over, Leonard started to pack up his things. "So now I'm stuck with you for the rest of my life?"

"Only if you're _super_ unlucky." Frankie watched him clean up and grinned to herself. "Hey, we just had a semi-serious conversation and you didn't explode into a ball of flames."

"Does it count if I _felt_ like exploding into a ball of flames?"

"No, because everyone feels that way when talking to me at some point or another."

With his study materials put away and his side of the table completely cleared, Leonard chewed his bottom lip slightly as he thought. "Guess we're friends now, huh?"

Frankie faked a gasp. "Keep your voice down! You'll scare it away."

"You are so weird."

"Everything I say has a fifty-fifty chance of pissing you off. I'm just rolling the dice at this point," she admitted. "Our odd relationship is very fragile; like a baby deer."

"Let's just go." Leonard stood first and headed for the exit, not waiting for Frankie. He knew she would catch up.

Grabbing her bag, Frankie broke into a light jog before falling into place next to her study partner. Before she had the chance to start any light conversation, however, Leonard's hospital communicator beeped softly from his back pocket. As soon as he pulled it out, his face fell. Frankie knew that look; he was being paged to the hospital, probably because one of his patients needed him.

"Paging Doctor McCoy." Frankie sing-songed. "What's the issue?"

"No idea," he groaned, tucking the pager back into his pocket as he and Frankie approached the library exit. Before Frankie could reach for the door handle, he stretched over her and planted his palm on the glass, pushing it open and letting her out first with a subtle head nod.

Frankie smiled. "Thanks. Headed to the hospital then?"

"Unfortunately, yes," he answered, cocking an eyebrow when Frankie turned left with him instead of turning right to head back toward the room. "You're not heading back?"

Frankie shrugged, trying not to make a big deal out of the fact that she had decided on tagging along. "Nah. I'm kinda curious about what your new second-year messed up. So tragic that not everyone on your service can be as brilliant and helpful as I was."

Leonard rolled his eyes. "Oh, truly tragic, indeed. Nowhere near as modist, either."

"What can I say? I'm the complete package."

Falling silent, Leonard led the way into the hospital lobby and Frankie followed him onto the elevator. As soon as they reached the desired floor and the doors slid open, the duo was greeted by a mousy, wide-eyed girl who started speaking faster than Frankie could comprehend. Other than the fact that she was Leonard's second-year and that one of their patients had taken a drastic turn for the worse, there wasn't much information that stuck in Frankie's head. Leonard, on the other hand, seemed to be absorbing the lightning-fast patient handoff without issue.

"Stay here." Leonard turned to Frankie and placed his bag down beside her feet, wordlessly asking her to watch his stuff.

Knowing that now wasn't the time for questions, Frankie simply nodded and waited by the nurses' station while Leonard followed the second-year student, a barrage of nurses, and a few other doctors into one of the patient rooms.

Suddenly feeling as if she were intruding, Frankie stood silently and listened to the faint voices and machine noises from the room down the hall. About ten minutes later, the nurses rolled the patient out of the room and headed right for the elevator, presumably to take the patient up to the surgical floor.

Leonard, who looked as exhausted as ever, ran his hands over his face before returning to Frankie. "Ruptured ulcer," he told her, preemptively answering the question he knew was about to come out of her mouth.

"Exciting." Frankie reached down and grabbed Leonard's bag. "Well, I'll leave you to your fun. I'll take your stuff back with me."

"You could do that," Leonard's eyes were trained to the paperwork he was hunched over and scanning at the nurses' station, "or you could scrub in."

Frankie's eyes grew as wide as dinner plates. "You want me to scrub in on your surgery?"

"Well, first of all, it's not my surgery. I just have to be there because it's my patient," he said. "Secondly, you'll just be watching, so don't get too excited." He paused to wait for Frankie's answer. "So? Yes or no? We don't have much time for deliberation here."

Frankie nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, of course. Thank you."

"Thank me after you're legs ache from standing in one place for hours on end. We won't be heading home for a while."

"Despite your nonchalant attitude towards this, I know that you're aware that this is a nice gesture, so I want you to know that I'm grateful."

Finally looking up from the paperwork, Leonard flashed what could possibly pass for a smile. "You're welcome. Now, come on, let's go."

Thirty minutes later, Frankie found herself dressed head-to-toe in surgical scrubs, protective goggles, a mask, and gloves while she stood off to the side in the operating room with the other second-year girl and watched eagerly as the surgeon began the surgery. Across from the surgeon, Leonard stood, taking every opportunity to learn from the procedure. The scrub nurses surrounded the rest of the operating table, handing tools and monitoring the patient.

Frankie had been a little skeptical on how Leonard was going to get her into the surgery in the first place, considering the operating room wasn't a place where just anyone in the hospital could wander into. Leonard, however, had just told the surgeon that she was one of the other second-years on his service and just like that, no questions were asked and she was in.

"Have you ever seen a surgery like this before?" The mousy second-year girl leaned over and whispered.

Frankie shook her head, her eyes never leaving what was happening in front of her. "No, not like this. From a gallery, a few times before, but never from inside the actual operating room."

"Me either," the girl grinned and the mask covering her mouth crinkled slightly.

With that, the two women fell silent, their attention completely engulfed by the operation before them. Although they couldn't see everything that was happening, they could hear every word that the surgeon and his team were uttering, which was arguably more interesting than the actual surgery itself. Frankie found it fascinating to hear the surgeon work through his thinking process out loud for everyone to hear.

About halfway through the procedure, Leonard lifted his head to stretch his neck and his eyes flitted over to Frankie, who was so focused on the procedure that she almost didn't notice. When she did though, she flashed a quick thumbs-up. This was way better than learning from a textbook any day of the week.

Leonard couldn't deny the spark of joy he felt when he saw the way her eyes lit up throughout the entire procedure. There was no denying that she was born to be a doctor, and even though Leonard had alluded to the contrary before, he knew at that moment that she was going to be remarkable.

By the end of the operation, it was sometime after midnight and Frankie's legs did indeed ache, but she didn't care in the least. In fact, if someone had asked her right then to scrub in to watch another surgery, she probably would have agreed without hesitation. Running on adrenaline and excitement, she was more awake now than she had been hours before.

After the surgeon finished the surgery, which had thankfully gone off without a hitch, the nurses rolled the patient back out of the operating room and Frankie and the other second-year were dismissed.

Removing her many layers of PPE, Frankie then washed her hands thoroughly and returned to the nurses' station with her's and Leonard's bags in hand to wait for him to return.

Not long after, the man himself rounded the corner, the exhaustion that had been present on his face earlier now completely wiped. Instead, he seemed to be running on the same sort of high that Frankie was.

"That was so cool." Frankie couldn't help but gush even though she was sure something like that was old news to Leonard by then. "I know I already thanked you, but seriously . . . _thank you_ for that."

"I'm glad you enjoyed yourself. Way better than spending another boring night in the library, right?"

Frankie laughed and handed his bag over to him. "Can we study together like this all the time?"

As Leonard opened his mouth to respond, he reached into his bag and pulled out his PADD; his lips pressed together in a firm line seconds later. Frankie couldn't help but notice his change in demeanour. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"Olivia," was all he said before turning off his PADD and stuffing it back into his bag. "She says she understands that I work a lot, but sometimes it doesn't feel like she actually does."

Not wanting to say something out of place, Frankie decided to stay neutral. "I think it's just hard for people who aren't in the medical field to really wrap their heads around it."

"Yeah . . ." He sighed. "At least you get it."

Frankie grinned wide. "Exactly. You're not the only one dealing with this shit." She pulled her own PADD out and showed him the ten missed texts from Uhura, Jim, and even Olivia as well. "Maybe we should just fake our deaths and live in the hospital forever. No social life, no disappointed friends, only medicine."

Leonard chuckled. "Don't tempt me."

"You know that when you tell me not to do something it only makes me want to do it more. Jim has rubbed off on me like that."

"Oh, God . . . the last thing I need is two Jims."

"A true nightmare." Frankie adjusted her bag on her shoulder. "Well, we should probably head out and try to get a modicum of sleep before the sun rises."

Without using his words, Leonard silently agreed with a nod of his head and led the way back onto the elevator. As the doors slid shut, Frankie leaned back against the wall and let her eyes shut for just a moment, giving herself a chance to take everything about the evening in.

She never wanted to forget the night she properly watched her very first surgery.


	18. Chapter 18

"It was so . . . gross." Frankie struggled to speak through fits of laughter. She and Leonard were taking turns retelling a story for their most recent ER shift, but both of them were having trouble getting it out without breaking out into uncontrollable laughter. "And this guy just keeps asking us if he can keep it."

Jim, Olivia, Uhura, Wade, Maggie, and Jim's friend Silas were all chucking as well, their amusement coming from the story and the struggle the storytellers were going through.

"I've seen a lot of weird shit over the years, but that one was definitely one to remember," Leonard added.

"That's hilarious." Silas had to wipe a physical tear from his eye. "And you tell it so well. The gasping for breath in between each sentence really sells it."

Frankie flashed a smirk before reaching for her drink and taking a sip. The group of eight had all decided to go out for dinner together, which had seemed like a good idea to begin with, but in hindsight, a large group of eight rather rowdy and slightly tipsy cadets all huddled into a single corner of a small restaurant maybe wasn't the best idea. Every time they broke out into laughter together, heads turned toward them and they had definitely gotten a dirty look or two from their waiter.

Recently, Jim had been inviting Silas along to group hangouts. Frankie wasn't unaware of the not-so-subtle reasoning to this, as Jim had mentioned on more than one occasion that Silas was interested in her, but she found after a while that she didn't mind because she genuinely enjoyed his company. He and Wade got along quite well also because they were both engineers.

"Do you two actually get any work done?" Maggie asked. "Because it seems like you're always dealing with the crazies."

"Sure we do, we just don't tell you about it," Frankie said and Leonard nodded in agreement. "It's not very fun. 'Today I took a patient's blood pressure and it was 120/80 and normal'. See? Boring."

His arm resting on the back of Olivia's chair, who was sitting to his right, Leonard smiled. It seemed like he was actually enjoying himself, which was good because it had taken quite a while for Olivia, Jim, and Frankie to convince him to come in the first place. "Did you tell them about the lady that nearly took your eye out the other night?" he asked Frankie.

Uhura turned to Frankie. "The night the shuttle exploded? Is that how you got that scratch?" Frankie nodded and gestured to the scratch that had almost healed completely by then. "You told me it happened at work, but not _how_ it happened."

"Oh, it was a privilege to witness." Leonard dove head-first into the story, telling everyone about how Frankie was standing there, her hands pressing against the gushing wound as the patient clawed and slapped at her. He definitely over-exaggerated about how much blood there had been, but the story was a riot nevertheless.

"Oh, my God!" Olivia gasped at the end. "How did you stay there and just take it? I would have run."

Frankie shrugged. "If I took my hands away, she might have bled out. The decision wasn't really a hard one."

"Did she live?" Jim inquired.

"She did," Frankie answered. "I saw her just this morning, actually. Much calmer. Less bleedy."

"'Less bleedy'?" Uhura quirked a brow. "Is that a legitimate medical term, Doctor?"

Frankie held up her cocktail and gestured to it. "It is when I've been drinking."

"Fair enough." Maggie held up her drink as well and clinked her glass against Frankie's. "I'll drink to that."

"To not being 'bleedy.'" Wade toasted and everyone followed with, "bleedy!"

That definitely earned the table a few more odd glares and eye rolls, but by then, they had accepted that everyone there hated them and thanked the universe that they had already ordered their food before they had started pissing off their waiter.

After another twenty minutes or so, the group had finished their meals and drinks and were ready to pay the bill and head out. The plan from there was to head back to Frankie, Jim, and Leonard's room since it was the largest and watch a movie.

Despite the fact that they had been trying to decide what movie to watch all night, they still hadn't chosen one by the time they were leaving the restaurant.

"I hope that twenty-dollar tip made up for how much we sucked," Wade said as he slipped his hand into Maggie's and they took the lead back to campus since the restaurant they had gone to was across the street from the academy.

"I wouldn't be surprised if the waiter followed us back to the room and murdered us all in cold blood." Uhura snickered. "Did you see that one old lady? I've never seen such disappointment in all my life."

"Pretty sure the disappointment was directed at Jim when he insisted on chugging his beer and then started coughing like an idiot." Frankie looked back over her shoulder at Jim and narrowed her eyes at him accusingly.

Jim scoffed. "Nonsense."

"Plan 9 from Outer Space!" Silas suddenly exclaimed without any warning.

Everyone looked at him like he had lost his mind. "Come again?" Leonard cocked his head like a confused dog.

"Plan 9 from Outer Space. It's been called the worst movie ever made." Silas explained. "That's what we should watch."

"Oh, so that wasn't a stroke? Good." Frankie chuckled. "Are we watching a bad movie tonight? Did we agree on that?"

"We couldn't agree on anything; that's the problem." Silas fell into pace beside Frankie. "So I'm making an executive decision."

Frankie looked up at the taller man and grinned wide. He really was good-looking. "What's it about?"

"Flying saucers attack from outer space."

"Little too on-the-nose there, don't you think, buddy?" Jim laughed as he clapped Silas on the back. "Bones is already scared enough of space. Don't need to make him cry in front of his girlfriend."

Everyone except Leonard and Olivia laughed.

"You're scared of space?" Olivia looked up at Leonard.

Leonard shook his head firmly and wrapped his arm around her, pulling her close. "No, absolutely not. Jim's just messing around."

"Yeah, just messing around." Frankie turned back before mouthing 'disease and danger wrapped in darkness and silence.'

Leonard furrowed his brows, silently warning Frankie to keep her mouth shut. She didn't push it any further from there; Leonard knowing that she knew he had a weird phobia about space was more than enough to keep her entertained.

Miraculously, by the time the group of eight had made it back to the room, they had actually decided on watching Inception, which Jim had convinced everyone to agree to because he claimed it was one of his favourite movies.

Being a good roommate, Frankie opted to sit on the floor with Uhura and Silas so that Leonard, Olivia, Wade, and Maggie could occupy the couch. Jim, on the other hand, had monopolized the armchair without even bothering to offer it to one of their guests, but he looked immensely comfortable so no one questioned him about it.

After grabbing pillows from her room for Uhura, Silas, and herself to sit on so their butts didn't go numb, Frankie also grabbed a few extra blankets before heading into the kitchen to grab some replicated popcorn. Popcorn was one of the few things that were so simple that Frankie couldn't personally tell the difference between the real-deal and the replicated stuff.

Standing in the kitchen, Frankie folded her arms and leaned back against the counter, watching while her friends all took turns shouting at Wade, who was struggling to get the TV functioning.

"You think we should help them?" Jim smirked, coming up beside Frankie.

Frankie watched as Maggie snatched the remote out of Wade's hands. "Nah, I think they've got it under control."

While the replicator filled the first bowl with popcorn, Frankie's gaze drifted to the opposite side of the couch from Wade and Maggie where Olivia was tucked under Leonard's arm, her lips pressed softly to his. It was miraculous how quickly Leonard had become comfortable with public affection—well, public affection in front of his group of friends. Strangers were still a whole different story.

Frankie smiled softly to herself as she watched the two couples interact with one another.

"Earth to Frankie." Jim waved his hand in front of her face. "Popcorn's ready."

Snapping out of her weird trance, Frankie turned to the replicator and grabbed the first bowl, which was now full of steaming popcorn, and put the second bowl inside.

"Cute, isn't it?" Jim nodded toward the couples, a smile on his face as well. "Nice to see everyone so happy."

"It is," Frankie agreed. "I'm just glad that everyone gets along and no one secretly daydreams about strangling anyone else in their sleep . . . _anymore._ "

Jim opened the fridge, pulled out a couple of beers, and handed one to Frankie. "Yes, you and Bones are getting along much better now."

Taking the beer, Frankie popped the cap on the edge of the counter and took a sip. "I'll never get used to that nickname," she said. "He's too serious for a nickname."

"He's not too serious all the time." Jim pointed over at the couch, where Leonard and Olivia were engaging in a rather passionate but soft kiss. "It's been a while since I've seen him this happy."

"I've never seen him this happy." Frankie glanced over at the replicator and noted that it was halfway through filling the second bowl. "Hard to believe it's real. Hell, it's hard to believe he even came out with us tonight."

"It definitely took some convincing. But I think he enjoyed himself. He rarely laughs as hard as he did when you and he were telling that story."

Frankie's mouth curled into a barely recognizable smile. "Yeah, well, it was pretty funny."

"Yeah, but I think there's more to it." Jim paused, waiting for Frankie to look at him before elaborating. "I think it's because you were telling it with him."

Frankie cocked a brow. "What does that have to do with anything? It was a funny situation, regardless if I had been there or not."

"Yes, but he never would have told anyone, let alone enjoyed it so much, if you hadn't been there."

Turning her entire body to face Jim, Frankie lowered her voice. "Jim, what are you getting at?"

"You two spend an awful lot of time together now."

"Yeah, no duh, we work together."

"But it's more than that." Jim noticed that the others had gotten everything set up and were just waiting for him and Frankie. "How does Olivia feel about it?"

"How does Olivia feel about what?"

"About how much time you spend with her boyfriend."

"I don't know. It's never come up. And why should it?" Frankie was growing frustrated. "Jim, whatever you're alluding to, just spit it out already."

"I think you like Bones," he said flatly. "And I think he likes you."

Frankie's jaw dropped and she was rendered speechless. "That's . . . that's . . ." She stumbled over her words, all of her ways of telling Jim he was wrong getting mangled in her mouth. "No. You're wrong."

"Am I?" Jim smirked. "Okay." He then shrugged, and without another word, turned and headed back into the living room with his beer in hand.

With that, Frankie was left alone in the kitchen, unsure of what to do next. Jim had to be messing with her. There was no way he actually thought that she and Leonard had a crush on each other, or whatever he wrongly assumed was going on.

It was probably just another one of his sneaky ways at trying to push Frankie toward Silas. No, that was exactly what it was. Jim wanted Frankie to want to prove him wrong, and in doing so, she would go out with Silas.

That had to be it.

"Hey, you coming?" Maggie looked over the back of the couch at Frankie.

Her head snapping toward the living room, where everyone was looking at her, Frankie forced a smile. "Yeah, coming." She grabbed both bowls of popcorn and returned to her spot on the floor between Uhura and Silas. "Sorry, just got lost in thought."

"What were you thinking about?" Jim asked. It sounded innocent enough, but the flicker of deviancy in his eyes was clear as day to Frankie.

"School." Frankie lied. Jim knew she was lying and smirked again. Damn him and his damn smirk.

"Hey, we're not thinking about classes or any of that garbage tonight," Uhura told Frankie as she grabbed a handful of popcorn from one of the bowls. Then, she took Frankie's beer from her hand and took a sip.

Pushing the gnawing thoughts about Leonard from her head, Frankie exhaled and nodded. "You're right." She covered herself with the blanket and rested her head on Uhura's shoulder briefly.

Not a minute later, Wade pressed play and the movie started. With the rest of the room completely dark and the only light coming from the TV, the experience was very cozy and relaxing.

Knowing that no one could see her worried facial expressions in the dark—not that anyone was looking at her instead of the television anyway—actually lulled Frankie into a feeling of calm. Before long, her racing thoughts ceased and she was completely focused on the movie.

That was, until about halfway through, Leonard shifted on the couch behind her and his leg ever-so-slightly pressed against her shoulder. Frankie's pulse quickened but she didn't dare look back over her shoulder; there was no reason to draw attention to something so perfectly normal. Frankie was the only one who was overthinking it, and that was for one reason and one reason only: Jim had gotten inside her head.

Glancing over at Jim for a second, Frankie was glad to see he was so enthralled by the film that he hadn't even noticed. But then again, did Frankie really expect him to have noticed? Leonard probably hadn't even noticed, and it was _his_ leg pressing against her shoulder.

Drawing in a deep breath, Frankie adjusted a little, hoping that the feeling of her shoulder brushing against his leg would alert Leonard to their proximity to one another and he would move said leg. That didn't happen, however. If anything, the two body parts were more firmly touching now.

Frankie sighed, trying to forget about the feeling; trying to forget about what Jim had said.

"You okay?" Silas leaned over and whispered so quietly that Frankie barely heard him.

"Oh, yeah," she answered, worried he had noticed something was wrong. "Just a little cold." She rubbed her hands together to better sell the lie.

Without a second of contemplation, Silas took the blanket off of himself and used it to cover Frankie better. "Here," he whispered again before wrapping an arm around her and pulling her closer, hoping his body heat would help. "Better?" he asked cautiously, making sure she was okay with him touching her.

For some reason, the addition of physical contact that wasn't Leonard's leg helped Frankie relax. "Yeah, thanks." She accepted the display of affection, fully aware that the others had noticed it as well.

Jim, who was grinning from ear to ear, flashed a thumbs-up that only Frankie saw.

Rolling her eyes, Frankie turned back to the movie and tried to focus on it and nothing else. The only thing that she could think about, however, was that whether bringing her and Silas together had been Jim's original plan or not, it had worked.

It was times like that that Frankie really hated his incessant need to meddle in other people's lives, even despite the fact that he usually believed he was doing someone a favour.

If Jim had really wanted to do Frankie a favour, he should have just kept his mouth shut in the first place.


End file.
